Product Description

Humans are extraordinary creatures, with the unique ability among animals to imitate and so copy from one another ideas, habits, skills, behaviours, inventions, songs, and stories. These are all memes, a term first coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene. Memes, like genes, are replicators, and this enthralling book is an investigation of whether this link between genes and memes can lead to important discoveries about the nature of the inner self. Confronting the deepest questions about our inner selves, with all our emotions, memories, beliefs, and decisions, Susan Blackmore makes a compelling case for the theory that the inner self is merely an illusion created by the memes for the sake of replication.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15737 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Habits, skills, songs, stories, ideas: humans are marvellously equipped to keep themselves and each other ceaselessly busy and it's as well, for no matter how hard we try, we humans just can't stop thinking. So, says Susan Blackmore, what if consciousness is not some esoteric genetic freebie but is itself the product of an altogether different evolutionary process?

Once humans learned to imitate each other--that is, receive, copy and retransmit "memes"--the rest, Blackmore argues, is a foregone and somewhat chilling conclusion: we are the product of our memes just as we are the products of our genes, the trouble being that memes, like genes, care only for their own propagation. The ability to imitate each other laid us open to ideas good and bad in equal measure. These proliferated in such numbers that individuals, competing to imitate the best imitators, needed bigger and bigger brains to contain the flood. Now our heads are so big, they are barely birthable.

Blackmore's brilliantly argued version of how humans became conscious--not to say downright troubled--demolishes some of the most intractable problems of human evolution and social biology, with flair. Hers is a book full of careful arguments and thrilling conjectures: riddled, in other words, with promising memes. --Simon Ings

Review
Anyone who hopes or fears that memetics will become a science of culture will find this surefooted exploration of the prospects a major eye-opener. Daniel Dennett Any theory deserves to be given its best shot, and that is what Susan Blackmore has given the theory of the meme I am delighted to recommend her book. Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins coined the term 'meme' in 1976, to refer to a cultural element that is passed on from person to person (or culture to culture) by imitation, or other non-genetic means. An idea such as the popular image of God as an old man with a long white beard could be regarded as a meme - so also could a popular song such as 'Yellow Submarine', or the concept of parliamentary democracy. Although the idea has penetrated popular culture itself (so that the meme concept is itself a meme), Blackmore has now provided the first popular account of what the whole meme idea might tell us about what it means to be human. A little more technical than Dawkins's own popularizations of the ideas of evolution, but still accessible. Review by: Dr Raj Persaud. Editor's note: Dr Raj Persaud is the author of Staying Sane: How to Make Your Mind Work for You. (Kirkus UK)

Review
Anyone who hopes or fears that memetics will become a science of culture will find this surefooted exploration of the prospects a major eye-opener. (Daniel Dennett )

Any theory deserves to be given its best shot, and that is what Susan Blackmore has given the theory of the meme I am delighted to recommend her book. (Richard Dawkins )

Customer Reviews

A terrific book on a 'science' in decline
It is a shame that just as usage of the word 'meme' is becoming commonplace, the 'science' of Memetics is falling out of favour. This is largely due to its inability to actually predict anything. For a science to be accepted as such it has to be testable - so it has to be predictive. Memetics (so far) doesn't do that. All it does is offer explanations of things that have already happened, and so many of its enthusiastic early converts have since gone in other directions. This is a shame, because to anyone new to it Memetics does offer the most stunning of explanations and insights.

Anyway, back in 2000, while everyone else dithered, Susan Blackmore nailed her colours to the mast and wrote this brilliant book full of insight and daring conjecture. You might disagree with a lot of what she says - it might even annoy you - but you will find it a fascinating read, and the best book (yet) on the subject.

Great theory, let's apply it.
I found this book both thought provoking and slightly disturbing. The arguments are well constructed and make perfect sense. The implications of the meme 'mind virus' are far reaching, I guess intuitively we all know this happens but now have a theory about the mechanism (like natural selection for genes) that illuminates the process. I am now wondering how this might help in my work in the area of organisational change...? I have a lot of thinking to do, perhaps create a meme or two.

Great Book.

Dont read this if your depressed
Seriously, dont read this if your depressed, it will push you over the edge..wherever that may be. A friend of mine gave me this to read, thinking i would enjoy it, and so i read it...over breakfast, on the train to work, at work and on the train home. By midnight of that day i was in bed and half way through the book and i couldn't believe what i was reading. Not only is the concept of memes mind blowing, i couldn't believe that i had never heard of it before. To say it shook my world is an understatement bigger than barbara streisands nose. It's utterly thought provoking, but too much thought into it will lead you down some dark places. And you cant just shake it off and go for a night out...the ideas in the book will follow you there, into pubs, cinemas, infact everytime your in a social environment. People who have read this book will understand. It caused me so much anguish that i had to pass it on to others to read, and watching their reaction was my therapy. Once you've read it, the world suddenly seems so different, but not in a good way. I know im building this book up like its the blair witch project but frankly it struck a bolt of reality into my soul and my fluffy dream of an afterlife evaporated. If it doesnt strike the fear of 'God' into you, then you dont have a pulse. Forget horror films, there is no need for pretend make believe, bad acting horror, this tiny book packs a punch to knockout stephen king. And that last page, more precisely, that last paragraph...sobered me up when i was half drunk. My next book is by someone called david icke, ive heard some rumours about it, and my initial feeling is that i made need a brandy on hand, but thats for another review. Good luck reading this one.