Ecb at 15:30, 22 September 2010

2010-09-22T15:30:41Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:30, 22 September 2010
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		+	Memes in [[Transhuman Space]].
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	In 1976, the biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term		In 1976, the biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term
	meme in the course of a popularized discussion of evolutionary		meme in the course of a popularized discussion of evolutionary

Ecb: Created page with 'In 1976, the biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term meme in the course of a popularized discussion of evolutionary theory. According to Dawkins, a meme was a unit of cultural …'

2010-06-14T13:40:36Z

Created page with 'In 1976, the biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term meme in the course of a popularized discussion of evolutionary theory. According to Dawkins, a meme was a unit of cultural …'

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In 1976, the biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term
meme in the course of a popularized discussion of evolutionary
theory. According to Dawkins, a meme was a unit of cultural
information – an idea, a fashion, or a technique.

Dawkins made a deliberate analogy to the concept of the
gene as a unit of biological information. He proposed that it might
be useful to think of ideas as subject to laws analogous to those
governing organisms. Ideas copied themselves from one human
mind to another, just as biological organisms copied themselves
through the natural reproductive process. Ideas could spread
through a human population, much like a virus. Ideas, like genes,
were subject to mutation. Ideas competed for the attention of
human beings, just as organisms competed for energy and the
chance to mate...

Dawkins’ proposal was slow to have any effect in the scientific
community. Over the course of the 21st century, memetics
has developed into a hybrid of neurobiology and mass psychology.
Memeticists study how the human brain generates and stores
ideas, and how ideas are likely to change as humans share them
with each other. A few practical results have appeared, advancing
the state of fields such as cognitive science, demographics and
psychology. No stunning breakthroughs have been made.

The primary influence of memetics has been in popular culture.
One implication of the meme concept is that all elements of
human culture are essentially artificial. An idea can survive and
spread because it is good at attracting human attention – and this
“talent” may have nothing to do with the idea’s truth. People who
follow pop-science memetics tend to treat all ideas as conditional,
not worth accepting without question. This tends to infuriate
followers of various religions, political ideologies, and other
beliefs requiring a commitment of faith.

Memetics also encourages one to think of his own beliefs as
foreign ideas that have gained a foothold in his mind. As a result,
a follower of pop-science memetics may decide to “have his
memes upgraded,” just as he might undergo genetic therapy or
have biotech devices implanted. The popularity of memetic ideas
has thus led to a surge in demand for psychotherapy, making the
therapeutic industry a significant sector of the economy in some
[[Fifth Wave]] nations. The term “memesplicer” has become common
slang for any psychotherapist or sociologist.

Recently, researchers in artificial intelligence have been surprised
to learn that their sentient computers consider memetics to
be a useful concept. The most advanced of today’s AI do much of
the work of organizing their own thought processes. Many of
these, including some of the most successful at emulating human
behavior, claim to have attained great insights after studying
memetics. In fact, some of the most accomplished memetic theorists
of recent years have been infomorphs. It is now widely
accepted that there is a useful cross-fertilization between memetics
and artificial intelligence, one that SAIs are well-equipped to
exploit.

Category:Memes - Revision history

Ecb at 15:30, 22 September 2010

Ecb: Created page with 'In 1976, the biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term meme in the course of a popularized discussion of evolutionary theory. According to Dawkins, a meme was a unit of cultural …'