Humans, the second replicator

First there were genes. And now there are memes.

According to paranormal sceptic and scientist, Susan Blackmore, humans have let this second replicator out of the box....Pandora's Box...and it's here to stay. Like it or not.

Blackmore, who began her scientific career in the hope she would be able to demonstrate evidence for paranormal activities, has found none, and is now a confirmed skeptic.

She says that memes came about because humans imitate each other, like how to light fires, wear clothes, or perch sunglasses on our foreheads. Or how we fold the ends of the toilet paper over in hotel bathrooms.



The word "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene. Blackmore took the idea and turned it into a full fledged theory.

Memes are parasites of our brains, a symbiant. In the same way that genes survive in the members of our species that have competed and survived, so too do memes. It's all copying with variation and selection. The best memes live on and are transmitted from one generation to the next.

In a sense, when a new gene or meme survives, or is selected, you get design out of nowhere with no conscious designer in sight.

According to Blackmore, memes have forced us to have big brains, to use fatty tissue called myelin to insulate the neurons. Brains that love music, religion and art.

And because we all now have big heads, it it dangerous to give birth to new members of the species, which places our memes and our species at long term risk.

So be warned. There's another replicator lose in the world and its called a Teme, or technological meme. Temes are the tools we use, such as the motor car, washing machine or computer. And they are becoming smarter every day, and could soon live on without us.

So here's a series of questions to explore these issues:

1. Give examples of "genes", "memes" and "temes", that explains the differences between them.
2. In what ways might the transmission of "memes" have an influence over the genes that are transmitted? Think about the consequences of memes such as medicine, social welfare etc.
3. Explain how the idea of a "meme" is itelf a meme.
4. If memes are "design out of nowhere", how did the concept of "meme" get started and develop? Was it Richard Dawkins, Susan Blackmore, the universe, the "system", ancestor memes or what?
5. What influence might genes have on the development of "memes" and "temes"?
6. At what stage of human development might "temes" take on a life of their own, and how might this happen?
7. What factors might contribute to a meme or teme dying out?