The Selfish Gene

I have said a tune is one meme, but what about a symphony: how many memes is that? Is each movement one meme, each recognizable phrase of melody, each bar, each chord, or what?

We have the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth and, if necessary, the selfish memes of our indoctrination.

What we have not previously considered is that a cultural trait may have evolved in the way that it has, simply because it is advantageous to itself. We do not have to look for conventional biological survival values of traits like religion, music, and ritual dancing, though these may also be present.

This is a peculiarly nasty technique of persuasion, causing great psychological anguish throughout the middle ages and even today. But it is highly effective. It might almost have been planned deliberately by a machiavellian priesthood trained in deep psychological indoctrination techniques. However, I doubt if the priests were that clever. Much mo

But in general they must be the same as those discussed for the replicators of Chapter 2: longevity, fecundity, and copying-fidelity.

We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.*

To take a particular example, an aspect of doctrine that has been very effective in enforcing religious observance is the threat of hell fire.

One unique feature of man, which may or may not have evolved memically, is his capacity for conscious foresight.

This brings me to the third general quality of successful replicators: copying-fidelity. Here I must admit that I am on shaky ground. At first sight it looks as if memes are not high-fidelity replicators at all. Every time a scientist hears an idea and passes it on to somebody else, he is likely to change it somewhat.