Susan Blackmore Lecture: The Future of Memes

Also posted to Memetics and Cultural Evolution

Susan Blackmore on The Future of Memes - Pop!Tech Conference, 2005

Susan Blackmore, the author of The Meme Machine, gives a very good overview of memes. She describes a number of related terms an concepts, and clears up some misunderstandings.

He has an entertaining and humorous speaking style (although she can get a little carried away). Note that she was displaying slides during this lecture so you have to infer some things she is talking about.

Intro:
Memetics is an intellectually rich but controversial field which seeks to explain how our minds and cultures are designed by natural selection acting on replicating information, just as organisms evolve by natural selection acting on genes. Sue Blackmore, one of the field's leading thinkers, skillfully unfolds the major arguments for a meme's-eye view of the world, and explores the implications for humanity. Are our brains best seen as machines invented by and for propagation of selfish memes?

Direct mp3 download - about 20 megabytes.

Alternate podcast link: Mefeedia

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