X-Message-Number: 11948 Date: Sat, 12 Jun 1999 10:18:45 +0100 From: (John de Rivaz) Subject: Book Review: The Meme Machine Book Review: The Meme Machine, by Dr Susan Blackmore ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Cryonics enthusiasts cannot understand why the idea is not obvious to everyone, not just themselves. Robert Ettinger thought circulating a copy of a paper to a few influential people would have companies like Frigidaire taking up the concept. When this didn't work, publishing a book didn't have a beneficial effect either. Theories about whether it is too expensive, too disgusting, too intrusive, or too peculiar abound. What follows is a review of a book that discussed memes in great detail. This book may help to explain the place of cryonics in the collective human consciousness. I hope that many cryonicists read it and comment on it in Cryonet and perhaps from the discussion some useful ideas can emerge that will strengthen the movement. The idea of memes is not new, but The Meme Machine gives a fresh and readable perspective to the concept, and certainly adds many new ideas. It gets really interesting from chapter 7 onwards, but do not skip the early chapters. The book will give you a fresh perspective on the world you live in. Understanding is easier if you choose the right view point. It is no more true to say that the Earth goes round the sun as visa-versa, but if you insist on putting the Earth at the centre then it is very difficult to understand and have a mental model of the solar system or indeed the rest of the universe. The theory of memes as self replicating ideas in the substrate of human minds and co-existing with self replicating genes in the substrate of human bodies makes it easier to understand many baffling phenomena of life, from seemingly irrational religious beliefs through why people are altruistic and to which pop tunes, films, and toys sales at Christmas are the most successful. Dr Blackmore goes on to say that physical objects (eg computers) can be considered as physical objects which self replicate by using human labour motivated by memes. She fails to make the connection between this and the peculiar behaviour of shares on the stock market in companies like Intel and Microsoft. But these sorts of links will fill the minds of readers of her book who have expertise in other areas. (No financial professional predicted the long term rise and rise of these shares - most booms end in bust. Once you understand how memes affect physical objects, and couple this with an understanding of how computers design newer and bigger computers and you can see why these stocks really are different from food retailers, hospitality stocks and even car and white goods manufacturers, taking the point of view of a long term investment strategy.) Dr Blackmore introduced a plausible theory of altruism which seemed very logical to me, but disappointing no doubt to the "sack cloth and ashes" brigade motivated by The Parable of the Widows Mite. Incidentally she did have things to say about the motivation of people like Bob "give till it hurts" Geldorff,. Mother Teresa, and Diana, Princess of Wales, that may offend some. However any sensible person will see the comments not as personal criticism or insults, but an honest attempt to explain the phenomena of certain world figures in a scientific manner. Her discussion of the subject of scientific and artistic creativity and the cult of the inventor agrees with what I and some inventors already know about the process of invention. [AH Reeves, the inventor of PCM, said something similar a public lecture in 1962 about the equilibrium process (a sort of one dimensional neural network). Invention is like seeing paintings in a gallery - you may tell your friends that you have seen a nice painting, but you don't pat yourself on the back for painting it. I think what he meant is that the ideas that make up an invention exist outside individuals, the individual credited with "making an invention" just points them out to the rest of humanity.] But there is a world of difference between a gut reaction and a carefully worded argument with references. Dr Blackmore gives us this argument. Intellectual property rights enthusiasts and patent and copyright lawyers will have cause for thought at the ideas in this book. If shares could be bought in legal institutions, I would not regard these areas of law as one for long term investment if Dr Blackmore's work gets incorporated into the way our modern civilisation functions. Linux is a very relevant phenomenum. However in the face of these superlatives, I did feel let down by the final two chapters when she went on to discuss the nature of self and the nature of consciousness. She tried to cram too much into a short section - these need further thought and work and certainly one or more whole books. She produced a theory of self, expressed in terms of "memeplexes", and then went on to discuss how to thwart the self and switch it off, which I must say I found a non-sequitur. (Or maybe I totally misunderstood what she is getting at.) You don't after all, discover a useful mechanism to describe the behaviour of something and then immediately try to exterminate it. Memetics is undoubtedly a useful too to understand humanity, but just because we understand ourselves better is no sensible reason to deny ourselves existence. It should be a tool to enable people to lead more fulfilling lives and live in better harmony. The fact that it is yet another scientific finding that denies the existence of a personal god is not a reason to deny the self, by whatever means the concept of self actually works. But these final moans aside, I would say that if you read one science fact book this year, chose this one - you will never see yourself or anyone else in quite the same way again, and if you read it late at night be prepared for some strange dreams. To read further reviews and possibly by The Meme Machine UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0198503652/longevityreport Rest of World: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0198503652/longevitybooksA/ -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz Homepage: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR Longevity Report: http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Sauna/3748/lr.htm Fractal Report: http://www.longevb.demon.co.uk/fr.htm PCS - a Singles listing sheet for people in Cornwall http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR/pcs.htm Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11948