We invented why
Feb. 6th, 2003 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyreGoddamn I need the book of this Evolution series. So I can read and ponder and read again. This is really making me think. I have a feeling it may change my entire attitude about some things.
Tonight I learned about memes. Memes are are specifically human. Whereas the rest of the living world is shaped by genes and their evolution. Humans have changed. You've probably heard me say before that I believe humans have stunted thier own evolution. Well this episode gave me a bit of food for thought. Humans no longer use genes to evolve, we use memes, we mimic others and learn, we use complex language. The fastet transferred and "best" memes are the ones passed on. A scary thought was also mentioned about the fact that the most uneducated people will have the most offspring (because the educated know about and use birth control.) But that probably doesn't matter seeing as humans don't evolve that way anymore anyway.
But one of the most mindbending parts of this concept is that genes are tangible. It's a nucleic acid, a sequence of protiens, with a good enough microscope I can see it and I can see evidence of it in many simpler experiments. But a meme, that has no tangible form, but a like a gene it seems to be controlling us now. Maybe we are no longer slaves to the nucleic acid, but slaves to some other bizarre force that has no physical substance.
In which case, maybe there truly ARE gods that are not just our creation. No, that doesn't make sense. We created it in the first place, but now it DOES control us, and our evolution. We haven't stunted our evolution, we've CHANGED it's mechanism. God that's mindblowing.
Tonight I learned about memes. Memes are are specifically human. Whereas the rest of the living world is shaped by genes and their evolution. Humans have changed. You've probably heard me say before that I believe humans have stunted thier own evolution. Well this episode gave me a bit of food for thought. Humans no longer use genes to evolve, we use memes, we mimic others and learn, we use complex language. The fastet transferred and "best" memes are the ones passed on. A scary thought was also mentioned about the fact that the most uneducated people will have the most offspring (because the educated know about and use birth control.) But that probably doesn't matter seeing as humans don't evolve that way anymore anyway.
But one of the most mindbending parts of this concept is that genes are tangible. It's a nucleic acid, a sequence of protiens, with a good enough microscope I can see it and I can see evidence of it in many simpler experiments. But a meme, that has no tangible form, but a like a gene it seems to be controlling us now. Maybe we are no longer slaves to the nucleic acid, but slaves to some other bizarre force that has no physical substance.
In which case, maybe there truly ARE gods that are not just our creation. No, that doesn't make sense. We created it in the first place, but now it DOES control us, and our evolution. We haven't stunted our evolution, we've CHANGED it's mechanism. God that's mindblowing.
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no subject
Date: 2003-02-06 04:57 am (UTC)I read an article about memes a long long time ago and read up about it. I like the fact that our conciousness is just a bunch of memes all collecting together that creates something that is more than the sum of the parts. "I" IS an illusion. Its the seperate parts of your mind all producing an output that "appears" to think for itself. In reality, its not true. Its just the gui for your mind. (Ok, gui is a BAD example, and in fact makes no sense. Maybe "final tier of the os" cos theres lots of stuff underneath it all that all makes it run is a better one, but dammit gui just sounds better. At heart, I am a player with words. ^__^)
I like memes. They explain so much about us.
Im surprised you hadn't read about it before, actually. That's really weird. I thought it was common knowledge. :)
Re:
Date: 2003-02-06 05:07 am (UTC)I now KNOW precisely what they are and what they do.
no subject
Date: 2003-02-06 05:12 am (UTC)