Previous memes workshops
1. Association for the Scientific Study of
Consciousness 5.
Conference on "The Contents of Consciousness". Duke
University, North Carolina http://www.duke.edu/philosophy/assc5.html
2. "Consciousness and its Place in Nature: Toward a Science of Consciousness"
Conference in Skövde, Sweden. For more details see http://www.ida.his.se/ida/consciousness/
3. "Memes and
Meditation". A weekend
retreat organised by the Bristol Ch'an Group. Bristol September 29-30
2001.
Tucson 2002.
Sunday April 7th 2002, 9-1.
For more information see http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/tucson2002
No prior knowledge of memetics will be assumed but if you wish to read
anything beforehand here are some suggestions.
Books
Dawkins, R. 1976 The Selfish Gene. It
was at the end of this classic that Dawkins coined the term 'meme'.
This is in the last chapter in the original edition and chapter 11 in
the updated 1989 edition. Pages 191-201 contain an excellent summary,
not only of the invention of the term, but of some of the ideas which
later formed the heart of memetics.
Dennett, D. 1991 Consciousness Explained and 1995 Darwin's
Dangerous Idea.
Dennett develops many new ideas about memes
in CE, taking them further than Dawkins had done, including his idea
that 'consciousness itself is a huge complex of memes'. DDI largely
repeats these, although it does include a few new ideas too.
Aunger, R.A. 2000 Darwinizing Culture
Oxford University Press. Includes chapters by major proponents and critics
and covers the major debates in memetics.
Online Resources
There is an online journal Journal of Memetics
- Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission . See http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/
Memes central UK provides papers and
information on British researchers, as well as links to other sites
http://www.memes.org.uk
Meme theorists on the web provides the
best selection of online papers and other information, with helpful
evaluations. http://users.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Memetics/
My publications
My own work on memes includes the following (but I will not assume
that participants have read any of it)
Blackmore,S. 2001 Evolution and memes: The
human brain as a selective imitation device. Cybernetics and Systems,
32, 225-255
Bull,L., Holland,O. and Blackmore,S. 2001 On meme-gene coevolution.
Artificial Life, 6, 227-235
Blackmore,S.J. 2000 The power of memes.
Scientific American, 283:4, 52-61
Blackmore,S.J. 2000 The meme's eye view. In Darwinizing Culture:
The Status of Memetics as a Science, Ed. R.A.Aunger, Oxford; Oxford
University Press.
Blackmore,S.J. 2000 Memes and the malign
user illusion (abstract), Consciousness and Cognition, 9,
S49
Blackmore,S.J. Dismantling the selfplex: Memes machines and the
nature of consciousness. "Toward a Science of Consciousness 4".
Tucson, Arizona, April 10-15 2000
Blackmore,S.J. 2000 Memes and the Malign
user illusion. Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness,
conference, Brussels, July 2000
Blackmore,S.J. 1999 Waking from the Meme
Dream. In The Psychology of Awakening: Buddhism, Science and Our
Day-to-day Lives. Ed. G.Watson, S.Batchelor and G.Claxton; London,
Rider, 112-122
Blackmore,S.J. 1999 Meme machines and consciousness, Journal of
Intelligent Systems, 9, 355-376 abstract
Blackmore,S.J.
1998 Imitation and the definition of a meme. Journal of Memetics
- Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 2.
Blackmore,S.J. 1997 The power of the meme meme.
The Skeptic (US), 5 No 2, 43-49,
There is also information about my 1999 book The
Meme Machine.
Workshop abstract
Introduction to Memetics: Memes, Minds and the Evolution
of Self
The aim of this workshop is to provide an introduction
to the theory of memetics and explore its relevance to the nature and
contents of consciousness. By the end of the workshop participants should
(a) understand what is, and is not, a meme,
and how memetics can be applied in several different fields
(b) be familiar with the major controversies and disagreements within
memetics
(c) have an informed opinion on whether or
not memetics is useful for the understanding of consciousness.
There will be three sections, each including
approximately half an hour's lecture, interspersed with group and individual
exercises, and with plenty of time for discussion.
Part 1 - Introduction to memetics
The term 'meme' was coined by Dawkins in 1976
to mean a unit of imitation or a cultural replicator. He invented the
term to illustrate the theory of universal Darwinism, and to describe
another replicator apart from the genes.
Selfish memes: computer and email viruses,
religions as viruses, co-adapted meme-complexes and how they form.
Previous theories of cultural evolution and
why memetics is different. The importance of imitation. The problems
of definition, with examples (Dawkins, Dennett, Gabora etc). Brief introduction
to the major controversies in memetics. The Lamarckian objection, digital
v analogue systems, agency, memes as artefacts v memes as neural information.
An imitation exercise - exploring why imitation is so
difficult. Levels of imitation.
Part 2 - Memes and Consciousness
Human consciousness. Memes and human evolution.
Memetic drive, the origins of the big brain and language.
How memetics changes conventional views on
the evolution of consciousness. Memes and their copying machinery co-evolve.
Humans as meme machines. Examples of memetic engineering.
Dennett - "Human consciousness itself is a huge complex of memes".
Blackmore - Memes as distorting human consciousness.
Implications of these two views for the contents
of consciousness. Their different predictions.
Exercise: Is there consciousness without memes?
Animal consciousness. The debate over
whether other animals have memes. Apes and sign language, birds and
milk bottles, cetaceans and the imitation of sounds. Light shed on the
relationship between language and consciousness?
Machine consciousness. Do machines have
memes? Copying in artificial intelligent systems. The internet as a
meme machine. Memeplexes and distributed consciousness.
Part 3 - The self and self-transformation
Dennett's 'Benign user illusion'. Why do we
suffer an illusion of self? The theory of self as memeplex. The idea
of dismantling the memeplex.
Meditation and mindfulness as 'meme-weeding' techniques.
An exercise in mindfulness. An opportunity
for people to try some short meditation exercises directed specifically
at investigating the power of memes in awareness.
Practical and personal implications of a memetic
theory of consciousness. Free will, morality, legal responsibility.
Dawkins' rebellion against the selfish replicators. Who rebels? Living
as a meme machine.
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