The Meme Machine

Author: Susan Blackmore
By Oxford Paperbacks
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Editorial Review
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

Customer Reviews

Dont read this if your depressed, 2005-11-01
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.

Great theory, let's apply it., 2007-06-30
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.

Memes have a lot to answer for., 2004-05-22
The concept and idea of memes is such a simple, but extraordinary idea, originally hatched by Dawkins. The cultural Gene is expanded on, and explained to make an interesting and provoking subject by Blackmore. Full of strong arguments for memes as an evolutionary component and force to the increase in brain development, and therefore of consciousness. Weather the meme played such a role is hard to say, but undoubtable the meme presented as successful ideas, evolving through people and cultures certainly exists, and it is very interesting to consider the effects they have and which become successful and which don't and how they have, and continue to shape humanity. The beauty of the book is that fundamentally the meme is a simple concept to grasp and to follow and to understand how Blackmore reached her conclusions. An intelligently written and enjoyable book to read.

The Book of Common Sense, 2005-02-21
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the term 'meme' to surpass the lexicon of phrases previously used to convey cultural ideas. "Shibboleth" is, of course, too 'foreign' for the WASP mind to grasp intuitively. "Myth" is nice and brief, but again has been relegated to minor considerations. It's something 'pagan' or out of time. "Cultural icon" conjures up images of rock stars or charismatic politicians. "Meme" has the advantages of universality; it's easy to remember, and isn't carrying any prior cultural overtones. In an age of fast moving technologies, 'meme' is timely - after all, how many readers here haven't heard something about genetic research. It's only shortcoming is the hesitation one hears when others are trying to say it: is it 'meem' or 'meemee'. The former is correct, of course, but you might have to have read Dawkins first to pick up on that.

Alien abductions and Near Death Experiences as expressions of memeplexes, complex, irrational memes. In 'Religions As Memeplexes' Blackmore explains how memes modify the genetic mechanism for altruism among kin by extending benificence to those who are 'like us'. This give great strength to religious memes, extending their influence over disparate groups. Religious memes did not set out to be successful, they have no more ability to foresee the future than do genes. Religious memes flourish in a given environment, with group selection rising above selection of individuals. The link of memetics to genetics and the reinforcing feedback loop of their interaction is the basis for successful religions.

It's a useful exercise to read this book in company with Richard Brodie's VIRUS OF THE MIND. Where Blackmore takes Dawkins' idea and fleshes it out with additional background information, Brodie applies practical applications of how memes impact our lives, and what, if anything, the reader might wish to do about that.

A terrific book on a 'science' in decline, 2007-10-18
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.

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The Meme Machine