Sliver of Hope

            For most of the book The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins focuses on elaborating his ideas on the replicators called genes. However, he reaches a point where he begins to specifically talk about humans. He explains that what sets us apart from all other ‘survival machines’ is our culture. This human culture has become a sort of primeval soup, similar to the one that created genes. The replicator in this new soup is what Dawkins calls a 'meme'. "Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes, fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches."(p.192) A meme is a "cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation."(p.192)

            Like genes its survival depends on its longevity, fecundity, and copying-fidelity. Longevity refers to how much time it will survive. Fecundity means its ability to spread. While copying-fidelity is how intact it will remain through time. What exactly is one meme though? "If the memes are closely 'linked' to use the genetic term, then it is convenient to lump them together as one meme."(p.196) "An 'idea-meme' might be defined as an entity that is capable of being transmitted from one brain to another."(p.196)

            Basically, a meme is a specific idea. Many times ideas evolve, like fashion trends. Several decades ago people wore their pants well above their waist line, yet now a days that idea has changed and we opt for pants that sit on or below the waist. Darwin's theory of evolution is widely accepted. However, over time each individual that has studied it, has modified it slightly to their personal understanding. The meme per se, has survived through the years, however the details of it have changed in order to satisfy new findings, different ways of thinking, and specific situations.

            Similarly to genes, memes have a blind sense of survival. We tend to say that they compete against each other, but in reality they simply have an embedded instinct to survive. We know it has nothing to do with being selfish or altruistic because they don't have any feelings on the topic. However, for the sake of conveying the concept, we can say that the memes are competing against each other for attention and time. If any given meme requires more time allotted to it, then it's at the expense of the other memes. A meme's success can be measured on how well it can be imitated. The more popular it can become the more chances it has to survive. 

            "When we die there are two things we can leave behind us genes and memes."(p. 199) Like I said in previous entries, our grandchildren are usually the last people that will remember us. Our gene combination will probably have an impact on our children and later our grandchildren. However, past the third generation not only will the memory of us fade away, but our specific gene combination will disappear as well. The good news is that our memes have the possibility of outliving both our gene combination and the memory of us. If we contribute to the world's culture in some way or form, it's quite possible that our meme will live on. Maybe our physical appearance, our personality, and our name will be forgotten, but  our meme might survive. There's a chance we might leave a small mark behind, maybe anonymous and minuscule, but nonetheless some kind of impact. 

            "Even if we look on the dark side and assume that the individual man is fundamentally selfish, our conscious foresight-our capacity to simulate the future in imagination-could save us from the worst selfish excesses of the blind replicators."(p.200) Technically, we are selfish, not because humans our wicked beings, but more because our main components have a strong selfish tendency. We our made up of memes and combinations of genes and both have a blind drive to survive, which makes them selfish and ruthless. Therefore, we as the unit that is created from a combination of the two will be selfish as well. However, there is a small sliver of hope. "We are built as gene machines and cultures as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators."(p.201) We won't necessarily be able to reverse this deeply rooted selfish characteristic, however there is a small chance. There really is no guarantee, yet in the general scheme of things you could call it a little sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe, our fate of being driven by selfish impulses could be refuted.