TED 2008 -- Susan Blackmore
Presenter: Susan Blackmore, author of The Meme Machine.
History of life is a history of replicators.
Language is a parasite we've adapted to. It may have started out being harmful, but we've developed a symbiotic relationship with it.
First replicators were genes. Then memes. We now have temes (tech memes) are a third repliciator on our planet.
Don't think of intelligence, thinnk of replicators.
New Drake equation. Start with number of planets -- what fraction of those get a first replicator, a 2nd replicator, a 3rd?
Getting a new replicator is dangerous. We need to pull through each time. The 2nd replicator (memes) was dangerous -= big brains are painful: kills a lot of mothers and babies. Brains uses 20% of body energy for 2% of body weight; it may have nearly killed us off.
temes are just information -- they use humans to suck up planet's resources. Don't think we created the internet to benefit us; we are being being used by temes. It convenient for temes to piggyback on us because we replicate. But when temes can replicate without us, they will carry on without us.
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I'm reminded of Laurie Anderson's great song, "Language Is A Virus."
"Language is a virus from outer space" - William S. Burroughs...
I am reminded of Elmer Gantry.
Yeah, that's where she got the idea for the song. She was a big Burroughs fan and friend and collaborator, going all the way back to a great record, "You're The One I Want To Spend My Money With."
The full quote from Laurie's song:
"I saw this guy on the train and he seemed to gave gotten stuck in one of those abstract trances. and he was going: ooah, ooah, ooah... and Fred said: I think hes in some kind of pain. I think its a pain cry. and I said: Pain Cry? Then language is a virus."
And as for Mr. Burroughs, the concept of language as a virus comes from his 1970 work, "The Electronic Revolution."
This reminds me of Snow Crash - the Asherah Virus and all that.
Pangolingo, my thoughts exactly. In as much as you can have an exact thought about something as weird as Language as a Parasite. I'm not sure this analogy works, though. Is the language a thing that can exist independant of the brain that "uses" it? Is that what we do with parasites? Use them? Language is, if anything, quite dependent on memes. If language is a parasite, I'll need to know more about its evolution outside the host.
But look: language ISN'T a virus.
And what's the basis of the metaphor? Mere transmission? Language is transmitted from person to person? This is an insight? I'd say it was definitional of language.
Sittin' round the dormroom with the bong and Blackmore?
Gives a whole new meaning to smoke on the water, doesn't it?
I can't disagree more. This is putting the cart in front of the horse.
I just read something recently about step dancing being a way for people to communicate when they didn't share a common language. Step dancing is an algorithm as are all forms of communication... algebraic formulas for transmitting ideas.
Writing is not very similar to speaking or to sign language when you think about it.
If you're looking for viral/parisite entities in our midst, it's "ideas" that you need to be afraid of.
Do they come from another place and inhabit one of us like spirits? Ever been struck by an idea out of the blue?
Memes are just ideas wrapped up in an easily digestible algorithm.
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its OK, when the temes are on the verge of getting rid of us, we'll just ask them if they were around before us. Then their heads will explode in existential paradox and we can go on being oppressed by memes.
Ideas are messy and replicate badly. Just look at the Ten Commandments. This should be history's most prominent meme, yet few know, understand or agree with any of them. Language and ideas do not exist outside of a context (such as education, mental health, family, conditioning, etc.) or environment. I think the meme of memes is intriguing, but wrong. A teme also sounds interesting, but I think we as humans are still the servomechanism. We have choice.
Oh, sure, the temes are gonna get us, but we'll be avenged when the temes fall to the remes, who in turn will be superseded by the lemes, who of course will form the building blocks of the zemes.
Buy my futurist book on the subject for $39.95 hardcover! I've got a Ph.D. and everything.
Language doesn't hurt. I can't figure out why Blackmore would think so. It's very adaptive, evolutionarily speaking, to be able to tell people about dangers and food sources. Our big brain is our primary weapon. It's the only thing that made us the dominant species. So how is it harmful?
Blckmr thnks nythng tht'll gt hr n hnrrm. What I can't believe is what hokum these TED people put out! Six thousand bucks for this bs?
"We now have temes (tech memes) are a third repliciator on our planet."
Is this really the best Ted could do? Just from the above boingboing posts, why did they pick a bunch of women to do all the touchy feely nonsense? If I were a feminist I'd be offended by their choices.
"We now have temes"
Ugh.
This sounds like it's just a few shades away from Scientology --throw in a few warnings about Thetan levels and you are well on the way. Perhaps Susan Blackmore is a virus sent from space to over-analyze our systems of communication and culture.
I think this is the first thing associated with TED I've seen where my initial response was "what a load of crap".
Dan Dennett has a nice talk at ted about memes http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/116
Ah, perhaps THAT explains the sudden inexplicable national shortage of idioms reported in The Onion this week, in an expose titled "Idiom Shortage Leaves Nation All Sewed Up In Horse Pies" (irritatingly not online).
I'm just waiting for the day I'm subsumed into the great pulsating biotechnomemetobeast like mitochondria once before. Apparently I'll spend my time expressing poorly written comments in blog posts, rather than proteins, but hey.
Her piece, "Walk the Dog," (lemme see on iTunes it's here) which is cool all around, has this variant of the quote:
"Well you know language is a virus from space,
and hearing your name
is better
than seeing your face."
It sounds to me like the TED speakers need to be sf writers. A lot of this stuff sounds so...ah, what's the right "scientific" word I'm looking for? Unsuportable, unverifiable, untestable?
Oran: Language and other ideas behave in similar ways to the way that viruses replicate. They often become the matrices by which other things transmit in ways also similar to viruses. Metaphor.
Also, your joke about Smoke on the Water was amazing. Very funny indeed.