This article is about the book. For the Pink Guy song, see Pink Season.
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The Meme Machine
Author
Susan Blackmore
Subject
Memetics
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Publication date
8 April 1999
Media type
Print
Pages
288
ISBN
0-19-286212-X
OCLC
52855410
The Meme Machine is a popular science book by Susan Blackmore on the subject of memes. Blackmore attempts to constitute memetics as a science by discussing its empirical and analytic potential, as well as some important problems with memetics. The first half of the book tries to create greater clarity about the definition of the meme as she sees it. The last half of the book consists of a number of possible memetic explanations for such different problems as the origin of language, the origin of the human brain, sexual phenomena, the Internet and the notion of the self. These explanations, in her view, give simpler and clearer explanations than trying to create genetic explanations in these fields.
The idea of memes, and the word itself, were originally speculated by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene although similar, or analogous, concepts had been in currency for a while before its publishing. Richard Dawkins wrote a foreword to The Meme Machine.
In the book, Blackmore examines the difficulties associated with the meme including its definition and how to spot one as well as the difficulties which arise from seeing it as being like the gene. She sees the meme in terms of being a universal replicator, of which the gene is but an example, rather than being like the gene itself. Universal replicators possess three key characteristics: high fidelity replication, high levels of fecundity (and therefore many copies) and longevity. She believes that these are earlier days for memes than genes, and that while memes have attained/evolved a sufficiently high level of these characteristics to qualify as replicators, they are not as effective replicators as genes by these key characteristics.
While others have accepted the possible existence of memes, they are sometimes seen as subordinate to genes. The author suggests that this is not the case now and that memes are independent replicators. Indeed, she suggests that memes may now in some cases be driving genetic evolution and be the cause of the abnormally large brain in Homo sapiens.[1] Blackmore notes that human brains began expanding in size at about the same time that we started using tools and suggests that once individuals began to imitate each other, selection pressure favored those who could make good choices on what to imitate, and could imitate intelligently.[1]
^ abBlackmore, Susan (2000). The Meme Machine. Oxford University Press. pp. 75–76. ISBN 0-19-286212-X.
TheMemeMachine is a popular science book by Susan Blackmore on the subject of memes. Blackmore attempts to constitute memetics as a science by discussing...
A meme (/miːm/; MEEM) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic...
An Internet meme, or simply meme (/miːm/, MEEM), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behaviour, or style) that is spread via the Internet, often through...
Memetics is a theory of the evolution of culture based on Darwinian principles with thememe as the unit of culture. The term "meme" was coined by biologist...
The study of memes, units of cultural information, often involves the examination of meme complexes or memeplexes. Memeplexes, comparable to the gene complexes...
book, Meme Media and Meme Market Architectures, while the psychologist Susan Blackmore wrote TheMemeMachine (2000), with a foreword by Dawkins. The information...
at the University of Plymouth. Her fields of research include memetics, parapsychology, consciousness, and she is best known for her book TheMeme Machine...
Miller, Ernest. "Sherman, Set the Wayback Machine for Scientology". LawMeme. Yale Law School. Archived from the original (Blog) on November 16, 2012. Retrieved...
2016). "Palmer Luckey: The Facebook Near-Billionaire Secretly Funding Trump's MemeMachine". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on December 23...
Resnick (2016-09-23). "Palmer Luckey: The Facebook Near Billionaire Secretly Funding Trump's MemeMachine". The Daily Beast. Hern, Alex (2016-09-23)....
The Ligma joke first gained popularity online in July 2018. "Ligma" sounds similar to the words "lick my", and became a sophomoric Internet meme to set...
J. (2000). TheMemeMachine. Oxford University Press. p. x. ISBN 0-19-286212-X. The form and timing of the tic undoubtedly mutated over the generations...
Complex Media. Retrieved 27 January 2017. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "PINK GUY (FULL ALBUM) + FREE DOWNLOAD". YouTube. Miller, George...
compound word of the acronymic abbreviation LOL (laugh out loud) and the word "cat". A synonym for lolcat is cat macro or cat meme, since the images are a...
How Leap of Faith Jumped From the Movie Screen to Broadway". Broadway.com. Blackmore, Susan J. (2000). TheMemeMachine. Oxford University Press. p. 193...
phenomena are social and cultural phenomena specific to the Internet, such as Internet memes, which include popular catchphrases, images, viral videos...
Lauren (August 10, 2023). "The Making and Marketing of a 9-Year-Old MemeMachine". The Cut. Retrieved October 3, 2023. "The Brief Death (and Short Rebirth)...
sample of the song "Never Gonna Give You Up". Problems playing this file? See media help. Rickrolling or a Rickroll is an Internet meme involving the unexpected...
Housewives of Beverly Hills was used in an Internet meme called "woman yelling at a cat". Thememe depicts an upset Armstrong during a heated discussion...
Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-286092-5. Blackmore, Susan (1999) TheMemeMachine (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198503652. "Disciplines and...
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