[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-156022-en":3,"doc-seo-156022-105":30,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":90},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":20,"is_downloadable":20,"audit_status":20,"page_count":21,"language":22,"language_code":23,"site_id":24,"html_lang":23,"table_of_contents":25,"faqs":26,"seo_title":27,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":28,"read_time":29},156022,962084925290,"Caleb Sterling","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45",2,"Literature","The meme machine - book review","The meme machine by Susan Blackmore is reviewed for its clear, provocative and entertaining argument that culture and mind can be modeled as evolving ecologies of cultural information-units. The review evaluates claims that sexuality, language, morality, religion and consciousness arise from memetic rather than genetic evolution. It questions coherence and mechanisms, especially feedback loops linking memetic and genetic evolution, and challenges the idea that memes override genetic reproductive interests.","Review of\nThe meme machine\nby Susan Blackmore\nOxford University Press, 1999\nISBN 0 19 850365 2\nReviewed by Geoffrey Miller\nCurrent address:\nDr. Geoffrey Miller\nAssistant Professor\nPsychology, Logan Hall 160\nUniversity of New Mexico\nAlbuquerque, NM 87131-1161, USA\n(505) 277-1967 (office voice/fax)\n(505) 277-1394 (dept fax)\n\u0013 HYPERLINK \"mailto:gfmiller@unm.edu\" \u0014gfmiller@unm.edu\u0015\n\u0013 HYPERLINK \"http://www.unm.edu/~psych/faculty/gmiller.html\" \u0014http://www.unm.edu/~psych/faculty/gmiller.html\u0015\nPublished as:\nMiller, G. F. (2000).  Memetic evolution and human culture.  Quarterly Review of Biology, 75(4), 434-436.\nSusan Blackmore’s new book on memes is clear, provocative, and entertaining, but it shows that the emerging science of ‘memetics’ is still far from attaining the theoretical coherence and explanatory power of evolutionary biology. The meme machine promises much.  It argues that human culture and human psychology can be best modelled as ecologies of cultural information-units that evolved through random variation and selective imitation to parasitize human brains.  Blackmore views our sexuality, language, morality, religion, and even consciousness as outcomes of memetic rather than genetic evolution – adaptations for replicating memes, not human genes.  Most aspects of contemporary human culture that appear genetically maladaptive at first glance (e.g. recreational sex, religious celibacy, obsessive gossip) are portrayed as adaptive for the memes that supposedly infest our minds.\nAs a theoretical possibility, the idea of memetic evolution is reasonable; the question is how helpful it is in understanding human behavior and culture.  When Richard Dawkins introduced the idea of memes in his 1976 book The selfish gene, it was to illustrate the universality of Darwinian principles.  Potentially, random variation and selective retention could build up adaptive complexity not only in gene-based biology, but in idea-based culture, or in any other system of replicators. However, in the foreword to Blackmore’s book, Dawkins admits that he “became a little alarmed at the number of my readers who took the meme more positively as a theory of human culture in its own right.”\nBlackmore in particular has elevated the meme from a didactic example of a possible non-genetic replicator to a complete theory of human nature.  By pushing the meme idea into the furthest reaches of human consciousness, The meme machine offers a thrillingly paranoid view of the human condition, in which our minds are infected by millions of cultural viruses.  By the end, the reader can almost feel those nefarious memes pushing one’s buttons, running one’s life, and constructing the grand illusion of personal identity.  Blackmore adopts Salvador Dali’s “paranoic-critical attitude” to good rhetorical effect, offering a surreal alternative to the current evolutionary psychology view that our behavior is generally in our genetic interests.  Yet her perspective does not lead to a coherent theory of memetic adaptations, because it is too centered on the human psychological effects of memetic evolution rather than the dynamics of memetic evolution itself.\nThis anthropocentric, psychological focus leads to several problems.  Most importantly, Blackmore posits a number of feedback loops between memetic evolution and the genetic evolution of human psychological adaptations for language, morality, and consciousness, but it is never quite clear how these work from the selfish meme’s point of view.  How precisely can memes force genes “to build ever better and better meme-spreading devices” (p. 119)?  The clearest mechanism that Blackmore offers depends on sexual selection in favor of the best meme-producers: “mate with the man with the most memes” (p. 79).  This is a fascinating but only partially developed idea.  Blackmore claims that memes have largely slipped the leash of our genetic self-interest, since they often confer no survival utility on us.  However, if “people preferenti","cbCaipB9b6ZovPMq","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipB9b6ZovPMq","doc",38400,1,4,"English","en",105,"# Review overview\n## Core thesis of memetic evolution\n## Mechanisms and theoretical coherence\n## Critiques and alternative explanations","[{\"question\":\"What central argument does the review credit to The meme machine?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that human culture and psychology can be modeled as ecologies of memetic information-units that evolve through random variation and selective imitation, effectively parasitizing human brains.\"},{\"question\":\"Why does the reviewer question the theory’s explanatory power?\",\"answer\":\"The reviewer finds it lacking in coherent mechanisms, particularly the unclear operation of feedback loops between memetic evolution and genetic adaptation.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the reviewer see as a key problem for memes evolving against genetic interests?\",\"answer\":\"The reviewer suggests sexual selection would likely favor meme-spreaders that increase reproductive attractiveness, making it difficult to show that most memes reduce sexual appeal.\"}]","The meme machine - book review | DOC",1787942869,6,{"code":4,"msg":31,"data":32},"ok",{"site_id":24,"language":23,"slug":33,"title":13,"keywords":34,"description":14,"schema_data":35,"social_meta":85,"head_meta":87,"extra_data":89,"updated_unix":28},"the-meme-machine-book-review","",{"@graph":36,"@context":84},[37,52,67],{"@type":38,"itemListElement":39},"BreadcrumbList",[40,44,47,50],{"item":41,"name":42,"@type":43,"position":20},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":45,"name":46,"@type":43,"position":11},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",{"item":48,"name":12,"@type":43,"position":49},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":51,"name":13,"@type":43,"position":21},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-meme-machine-book-review/156022/",{"url":51,"name":13,"@type":53,"author":54,"headline":13,"publisher":56,"fileFormat":59,"inLanguage":23,"description":14,"dateModified":60,"datePublished":61,"encodingFormat":59,"isAccessibleForFree":62,"interactionStatistic":63},"DigitalDocument",{"name":9,"@type":55},"Person",{"url":41,"name":57,"@type":58},"DocShare","Organization","application/octet-stream","2026-09-04","2026-08-28",true,{"@type":64,"interactionType":65,"userInteractionCount":20},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":66},"ViewAction",{"@type":68,"mainEntity":69},"FAQPage",[70,76,80],{"name":71,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":73},"What central argument does the review credit to The meme machine?","Question",{"text":74,"@type":75},"It argues that human culture and psychology can be modeled as ecologies of memetic information-units that evolve through random variation and selective imitation, effectively parasitizing human brains.","Answer",{"name":77,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":78},"Why does the reviewer question the theory’s explanatory power?",{"text":79,"@type":75},"The reviewer finds it lacking in coherent mechanisms, particularly the unclear operation of feedback loops between memetic evolution and genetic adaptation.",{"name":81,"@type":72,"acceptedAnswer":82},"What does the reviewer see as a key problem for memes evolving against genetic interests?",{"text":83,"@type":75},"The reviewer suggests sexual selection would likely favor meme-spreaders that increase reproductive attractiveness, making it difficult to show that most memes reduce sexual appeal.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":51,"og:type":86,"og:title":13,"og:site_name":57,"og:description":14},"article",{"robots":88,"canonical":51},"index,follow",{"doc_id":7,"site_id":24},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":91},[92,96,99,103,108,112,117,122,127,130,134],{"id":20,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":11,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":12,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":98},80,"literature",{"id":21,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":100,"show_sort_weight":101,"slug":102},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":104,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":105,"show_sort_weight":106,"slug":107},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":109,"show_sort_weight":110,"slug":111},"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":113,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":114,"show_sort_weight":115,"slug":116},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":119,"show_sort_weight":120,"slug":121},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":126},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":125,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":125,"slug":129},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":131,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":132,"show_sort_weight":131,"slug":133},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":135,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":46,"category_name":136,"show_sort_weight":104,"slug":137},19,"General","general"]