What do you think?
Rate this book
Memetics: Memes and the Science of Cultural Evolution
Memetics is the name commonly given to the study of memes - a term originally coined by Richard Dawkins to describe small inherited elements of human culture. Memes are the cultural equivalent of DNA genes - and memetics is the cultural equivalent of genetics. Memes have become ubiquitous in the modern world - but there has been relatively little proper scientific study of how they arise, spread and change - apparently due to turf wars within the social sciences and misguided resistance to Darwinian explanations being applied to human behaviour.
However, with the modern explosion of internet memes, I think this is bound to change. With memes penetrating into every mass media channel, and with major companies riding on their coat tails for marketing purposes, social scientists will surely not be able to keep the subject at arm's length for much longer.
This will be good - because an understanding of memes is important. Memes are important for marketing and advertising. They are important for defending against marketing and advertising. They are important for understanding and managing your own mind. They are important for understanding science, politics, religion, causes, propaganda and popular culture.
Memetics is important for understanding the origin and evolution of modern humans. It provides insight into the rise of farming, science, industry, technology and machines. It is important for understanding the future of technological change and human evolution.
This book covers the basic concepts of memetics, giving an overview of its history, development, applications and the controversy that has been associated with it.
However, with the modern explosion of internet memes, I think this is bound to change. With memes penetrating into every mass media channel, and with major companies riding on their coat tails for marketing purposes, social scientists will surely not be able to keep the subject at arm's length for much longer.
This will be good - because an understanding of memes is important. Memes are important for marketing and advertising. They are important for defending against marketing and advertising. They are important for understanding and managing your own mind. They are important for understanding science, politics, religion, causes, propaganda and popular culture.
Memetics is important for understanding the origin and evolution of modern humans. It provides insight into the rise of farming, science, industry, technology and machines. It is important for understanding the future of technological change and human evolution.
This book covers the basic concepts of memetics, giving an overview of its history, development, applications and the controversy that has been associated with it.
326 pages, Paperback
First published August 19, 2011
49 people want to read
About the author
Tim Tyler
1 bookThere is more than one author with this name
Tim Tyler is an independent researcher in the field. He has studied memes and memetics since 2007
Tim Tyler is an independent researcher in the field. He has studied memes and memetics since 2007
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 24, 2016
I used to be active on a memetics list serve back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and I've read a number of books in the field. When people think of memes these days, what comes to mind is cute videos and images that spread like viruses all over the internet. But the term originated with Richard Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene" in 1976 to point out that ideas could be treated as self replicating entities like genes.
There are though, significant differences. Genes vary mindlessly, while memes change through forethought, induction, deduction, and all the tools available to a thinking mind. Genes replicate as a big package, one organism at a shot, sort of the equivalent if we could copy our minds to other bodies, while memes replicate one idea at a time, like if a genome replicated itself by transferring one protein at a time to another body. In addition, memes go from being ideas inside a head to an external manifestation like an action, statement, or drawing, and then back into another head. Genes go straight from DNA to more DNA, and the proteins they produce don't get reverse engineered back into DNA in another organism.
As a result, a lot of the terminology used in the biological world seems awkward when one attempts to apply it to the world of ideas. Because memes replicate and recombine individually instead of as parts of discrete genomes, the notion of "species" doesn't translate well. Because ideas have to pass through an external state that can be the source of new ideas, the genotype/phenotype distinction in genetics just doesn't apply. Similarly, the term "Lamarckian" (inheriting acquired characteristics) creeps into memetic discussions, but the term was antiquated 100 years ago, and just seems out place when referring to the ability of ideas to pass from idea implementation to idea in another person's head. These awkward applications come up early in Tyler's book.
Genes and memes do share some things though. Both rely on an incremental increase in information through reproduction, variation, and selection. Tyler does a good job of fleshing out the implications of a memetic viewpoint, from short term applications like in viral marketing to long term possibilities, like the idea that memes could eventually abandon their human homes and end up as part of machine intelligences.
Tyler has also done a lot of research on the history of the notion of cultural evolution, dating back even before Darwin to William's Sperry's realization in 1786 that languages descend from other languages to Darwin himself who noted the similarities between cultural and biological evolution through to famous behaviorist B.F.Skinner to the modern day when various authors have tried to further develop Dawkin's notion of the meme.
There are also a great number of critics of the memetics and Tyler spends a large portion of his book disputing them. This proves to be a weakness in the book because it occupies far, far too much of the text. It's all too combative. Chapter after Chapter of discussing everyone else's work and why it is wrong and not nearly enough simply offering an explanation of what memetics is and what it has to offer.
When he does try to convey some of that, Mr. Tyler falls short. Long before humans developed language, animals were copying each other's behaviors in isolated small ways. Humans though are active signalers who guess at what other people are thinking and try to convey information in a way that others will be most receptive to. A lot of the time in this book, Mr. Tyler doesn't give us enough to understand his ideas. He makes statements without giving reasoning behind the statements, he points at other authors and assumes that we already have read and understand their writing. I'm no the brightest bulb on the planet, but I have read a great deal in this area, and he lost me quite a few times. To me it seems that the book could have used a critical editor to point out the gaps and get them filled in.
I gave this 3 stars because Tyler does cover a lot of ground and with effort there is a fair amount to be gained here. Tyler has spent a lot of time thinking about his subject and it shows. The background resources are also useful for anyone who wants to dig in further. Tyler probably has dug in further and more thoroughly than anyone who has come before. I wish he were a better writer though.
There are though, significant differences. Genes vary mindlessly, while memes change through forethought, induction, deduction, and all the tools available to a thinking mind. Genes replicate as a big package, one organism at a shot, sort of the equivalent if we could copy our minds to other bodies, while memes replicate one idea at a time, like if a genome replicated itself by transferring one protein at a time to another body. In addition, memes go from being ideas inside a head to an external manifestation like an action, statement, or drawing, and then back into another head. Genes go straight from DNA to more DNA, and the proteins they produce don't get reverse engineered back into DNA in another organism.
As a result, a lot of the terminology used in the biological world seems awkward when one attempts to apply it to the world of ideas. Because memes replicate and recombine individually instead of as parts of discrete genomes, the notion of "species" doesn't translate well. Because ideas have to pass through an external state that can be the source of new ideas, the genotype/phenotype distinction in genetics just doesn't apply. Similarly, the term "Lamarckian" (inheriting acquired characteristics) creeps into memetic discussions, but the term was antiquated 100 years ago, and just seems out place when referring to the ability of ideas to pass from idea implementation to idea in another person's head. These awkward applications come up early in Tyler's book.
Genes and memes do share some things though. Both rely on an incremental increase in information through reproduction, variation, and selection. Tyler does a good job of fleshing out the implications of a memetic viewpoint, from short term applications like in viral marketing to long term possibilities, like the idea that memes could eventually abandon their human homes and end up as part of machine intelligences.
Tyler has also done a lot of research on the history of the notion of cultural evolution, dating back even before Darwin to William's Sperry's realization in 1786 that languages descend from other languages to Darwin himself who noted the similarities between cultural and biological evolution through to famous behaviorist B.F.Skinner to the modern day when various authors have tried to further develop Dawkin's notion of the meme.
There are also a great number of critics of the memetics and Tyler spends a large portion of his book disputing them. This proves to be a weakness in the book because it occupies far, far too much of the text. It's all too combative. Chapter after Chapter of discussing everyone else's work and why it is wrong and not nearly enough simply offering an explanation of what memetics is and what it has to offer.
When he does try to convey some of that, Mr. Tyler falls short. Long before humans developed language, animals were copying each other's behaviors in isolated small ways. Humans though are active signalers who guess at what other people are thinking and try to convey information in a way that others will be most receptive to. A lot of the time in this book, Mr. Tyler doesn't give us enough to understand his ideas. He makes statements without giving reasoning behind the statements, he points at other authors and assumes that we already have read and understand their writing. I'm no the brightest bulb on the planet, but I have read a great deal in this area, and he lost me quite a few times. To me it seems that the book could have used a critical editor to point out the gaps and get them filled in.
I gave this 3 stars because Tyler does cover a lot of ground and with effort there is a fair amount to be gained here. Tyler has spent a lot of time thinking about his subject and it shows. The background resources are also useful for anyone who wants to dig in further. Tyler probably has dug in further and more thoroughly than anyone who has come before. I wish he were a better writer though.
Displaying 1 of 1 review