<clip>True, but the base now stands at around 6 billion whereas when it first came into bloom it stood at only a few million. It's true without brains to occur in memetic engineering won't happen, but don't expect to see its extinction anytime soon. It's much too powerful a replicator to let it's own base vanish.
Memetic engineering PRESUPPOSES an adequate base -- and
right now, our *genes*, and the brains they code for, are the only such
base we know of.For this reason, it is important that we pay attention to gene -- in the
same way that a computer user pays attention to his supply of
electricity...ERiC
Nate