The Meme Machine

Over a decade ago, Richard Dawkins, who contributes a foreword to this book, coined the term ""meme"" for a unit of culture that is transmitted via imitation and naturally ""selected"" by popularity or longevity. Dawkins used memes to show that the theory known as Universal Darwinism, according to which ""all life evolves by the differential survival of replicating entities,"" applies to more than just genes. Now, building on his ideas, psychologist Blackmore contends that memes can account for many forms of human behavior that do not obviously serve the ""selfish gene."" For example, a possible gene-meme co-evolution among early humans could have selected for true altruism among humans: people who help others (whether or not they are related) can influence them and thus spread their memes. Meme transmission would also explain some thorny problems in sociobiology. From a gene's point of view, celibacy, birth control and adoption are horrible mistakes. From a meme's point of view, they are a gold mine. Few or no children free up the meme-carrier to devote more energy to horizontal transmission to non-relatives (monks and nuns the world over figured that out long ago), something the gene is incapable of. With adoption, memes can even co-opt vertical transmission between generations. Blackmore posits that, in modern culture, meme replication has almost completely overwhelmed the glacially slow gene replication. Well written and personable, this provocative book makes a cogent--if not wholly persuasive--case for the concept of memes and for the importance of their effects on human culture. (Apr.)