------------------------
Dawkins Speaks
On general principles, I never pass up a chance to listen to the inventor of
the word "meme" give a talk. So when I ventured on a Wednesday evening from
my apartment in Seattle's toney Belltown neighborhood all the way across
town, I was understandably eager to hear the latest thoughts from Richard
Dawkins, the Charles Simonyi Professor of Popular Understanding of Science
at Oxford University.
Radiant, natty and oh-so-British in his elegant gray suit and colorful
necktie, Dawkins spoke March 4 to a packed University of Washington audience
on the topic of "Science and Sensibility." In fact, the several-hundred-seat
Kane Hall was so packed that I was lucky to run into Charles Simonyi
himself, my old friend and mentor, who was kind enough to let me sit next to
him in his reserved section in the front row. I sat listening raptly.
Introduced as perhaps the only man ever both to have debated the Archbishop
of Canterbury and to have appeared on the cover of Wired magazine, Dawkins
has built up quite a following for an academician. His best-selling books,
from the classic and groundbreaking The Selfish Gene in which he coined the
word "meme" to his latest Climbing Mount Improbable, are published in dozens
of languages and are on uncounted recommended-reading lists, including my
own http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/books.htm . For over two decades his
ideas have been steadily attacked, both by the Fundamentalist Right and more
recently by the New Academic Left.
You know he must be doing something right.
Dawkins began his lecture by lamenting alarming trend of dumbing down
science in order to popularize it. Perhaps not realizing he was in the land
of the beloved Bill Nye the Science Guy, Dawkins pooh-poohed shopping-mall
demonstrations where people blow things up and call it "science." His point
was that while performing neat explosions may attract attention, it's not
science, and calling it that may end up attracting the wrong kind of people
to the field. A true connoisseur of the beauty and poetry inherent in pure
science, Dawkins wants to draw similar minds into the vocation -- minds who
so love the beauty of the truth of the universe that they will endure the
labors and hardships, the failures and endless trials of the true scientist.
Ironically, the very thing Dawkins decried is what makes him so popular. He
is at his best when he packages his ideas in the memetic Trojan horse of
"neat explosions." He is well known not so much for his lucid thinking as
for his explosive rhetoric: his use of terms like "selfish gene" and "virus
of the mind." These confrontational terms cause attention and controversy
and thus get people talking about him, good or bad. And of course, to the
Dawkins meme, like all memes, there's no such thing as bad publicity. As
Oscar Wilde noted, "There's only one thing worse than being talked about,
and that's NOT being talked about."
Although the bulk of his presentation was about the digital nature of
genetic information, a straightforward topic well covered in his two most
recent books, there were several questions asked about cultural evolution
and memes. Dawkins, as he has done each time I've heard him speak, modestly
indicated that while he coined the word "meme", he certainly didn't invent
the idea of Darwinian evolution applying to culture, and he really wasn't
qualified to go much further into the topic than simply suggesting that
there may be a replicator similar to the gene at work in culture or in the
mind. That being said, he went on to speculate that interesting findings in
memetics may center around the way sets of memes cooperate with each other.
How well does the meme for, say, male circumcision replicate in a culture
with memes for strong religious tradition versus one with memes for
innovation? And what sets of memes form a "viral shell" that allows the
rapid spread of the memes attached to that shell? These are themes explored
in my own book Virus of the Mind, themes which could benefit from
disciplined scientific research.
The speech finished, I thanked Charles for allowing me to occupy the Simonyi
Chair for the evening. I stood and observed the long line of autograph
seekers, copies of Climbing Mount Improbable and The Selfish Gene in hand,
waiting to meet memetics' reluctant guru. That's another meme that works
well in conjunction with others, I thought: the "celebrity" meme. Dawkins
has a unique status, pressing the most primitive buttons in us that make us
want to revere the tribal leaders and listen to their instructions.
Guide us, o Dawkins, I thought impatiently. Tell us how to package real
science in a glittering memetic shell so that it can outcompete astrology.
That's the real secret to the Public Understanding of Science, isn't it? I
wished he would stop dog-paddling and come up with a practical plan to steer
the battleship of public understanding toward scientific truth. I sighed and
breathed slowly, trying to relax. I have little patience for pussyfooting
around when there are battles to be fought. But I suppose that's to be
expected: after all, I am a Scorpio.
----------------------------
Subliminal Seduction Update
There is an article on Speed Seduction king Ross Jeffries in the current
issue of Rolling Stone (Kate Winslett on the cover), and a feature due soon
on the television show Hard Copy, although it's not known what day it will
be on. Jeffries teaches men to seduce women using sophisticated
neurolinguistic-programming techniques. http://www.seduction.com
----------------------------
Memetics Symposium
NAMUR (Belgium) August 24-28, 1998
The Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission,
in collaboration with the Principia Cybernetica Project, has decided to
organize a first symposium on memetics. The aim of the journal is to
integrate the different approaches inspired by memetics, and thus try to
establish memetics as a recognized scientific field. The symposium similarly
wishes to bring together all researchers working on memetics, in order to
allow them to meet face to face, thus stimulating discussions and possible
collaborations.
Prospective contributors are invited to submit a 1-page (about 2K) abstract
(preferably including references), along with the author's name, postal and
email address and affiliations. The submission should be sent by email to
the symposium chair, Mario Vaneechoutte: Mario.Vaneechoutte@rug.ac.be. The
deadline for receiving submissions is March 10, 1998.
For more information, see http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMETSY.html
For the Journal of memetics, see http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/
-------------------------
Events
Richard Brodie delivers keynote and other addresses for a variety of private
and public audiences. If you are interested in having Richard Brodie speak
to your group, please email speaking@brodietech.com.
All the best memes,
Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie
Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme"
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/votm.htm
Visit Meme Central! http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
This is Richard Brodie's Meme Update Newsletter. To subscribe/unsubscribe,
send mail to meme-update-request@kumo.com with "subscribe" or "unsubscribe"
in the message body. This is an automated list server, so you must send ONLY
those words exactly as written. If you're having trouble, email me and I'll
help.
When you find yourself hungry for more information about memetics, you'll
want to visit Meme Central. Meme Central is your FREE web site for all the
latest memetics books, links, and more! Visit Meme Central at
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm.
You can order books mentioned here and others through the Amazon.com
Memetics Bookstore at http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/books.htm.
Richard Brodie is the author of the first and best-selling book on memetics,
VIRUS OF THE MIND. VIRUS OF THE MIND is in its third printing and spent over
six months on the Amazon.com best-seller list! Start reading VIRUS OF THE
MIND on-line, for FREE, at http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/votm.htm.
Spread the meme! Forward this copy of meme update to others who need to know
about memes!
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+