Memetics: A dangerous idea

Citation
L. Benitez-bribiesca, Memetics: A dangerous idea, INTERCIENCI, 26(1), 2001, pp. 29-31
Citations number
9
Language
INGLESE
art.tipo
Article
Categorie Soggetti
Multidisciplinary
Journal title
INTERCIENCIA
ISSN journal
0378-1844 → ACNP
Volume
26
Issue
1
Year of publication
2001
Pages
29 - 31
Database
ISI
SICI code
0378-1844(200101)26:1<29:MADI>2.0.ZU;2-A
Abstract
In his bestseller book "The selfish gene" Richard Dawkins has defined DNA a s a universal replicator-molecule that constitutes the basic structure for evolution and natural selection of living creatures. When trying to explain cultural evolution he proposed the existence of a unit of cultural transmi ssion for which he coined the very appealing neologism of "meme' calling it the second replicator. Memes, as genes, are copied. They mutate and are se lected. This idea has undergone the sorcerer's apprentice path spreading ra pidly amongst many evolutionary scientists developing into a strange "scien ce of memetics". But while genes are well defined and their molecular struc ture has been extensively investigated, memes are ethereal and cannot be de fined. Without an adequate idea of these elusive elements it is no surprise that no scientific demonstration of such an immaterial replicator exists a nd serious scientists disregard memes as the basis to explain consciousness and cultural evolution. Memetics is nothing more than a pseudoscientific dogma where memes are comp ared to genes, viruses, parasites, or infectious agents thriving for their own survival in human brains. Memetics is a dangerous idea that poses a thr eat to the serious study of consciousness and cultural evolution.