The Meme Machine


From the Foreword by Richard Dawkins

I was always open to the possibility that the meme might one day be developed into a proper hypothesis of the human mind, and I did not know how ambitious such a thesis might turn out to be. Any theory deserves to  be   given its best shot, and that is what Susan Blackmore has given the theory of the meme. I do not know whether she will be judged too ambitious  in this enterprise, and I would even fear for her if I did not know her redoubtable qualities as a fighter. Redoubtable she is, and hard nosed too, but at the same time her style is light and personable. Her thesis undermines our most cherished illusions (as she would see them) of individual identity and personhood, yet she comes across as the kind of individual person you would wish to know. As one reader I am grateful for the courage, dedication and skill she has put into her difficult task of memetic engineering, and I am delighted to recommend her book.


Published by Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York
1999, hardback ISBN 0-19-850365-2.
2000 paperback ISBN 0-19-286212-X


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