MemeStreams | MemeStreams Discussion

Create an Account

This page contains all of the posts and discussion on MemeStreams referencing the following web page: The Robot's Rebellion. You can find discussions on MemeStreams as you surf the web, even if you aren't a MemeStreams member, using the Threads Bookmarklet.

The Robot's Rebellion
by noteworthy at 11:50 am EDT, Jun 11, 2004

The idea that we might be robots is no longer the stuff of science fiction; many esteemed scientists now believe that humans are merely the hosts for two replicators (genes and memes) that have no interest in us except as conduits for replication.
Accepting and now forcefully responding to this decentering and disturbing idea, Keith Stanovich here provides the tools for the "robot's rebellion."

We may well be robots, but we are the only robots who have discovered that fact.

Chapter 7, "From the Clutches of the Genes into the Clutches of the Memes", includes these topics:

Attack of the Memes: The Second Replicator
Rationality, Science, and Meme Evaluation
Reflectively Acquired Memes: The Neurathian Project of Meme Evaluation
Personal Autonomy and Reflectively Acquired Memes
Which Memes Are Good for Us?
Why Memes Can Be Especially Nasty (Nastier Than Genes Even!)
The Ultimate Meme Trick: Why Your Memes Want You to Hate the Idea of Memes
Memetic Concepts as Tools of Self-Examination
Building Memeplex Self on a Level Playing Field: Memetics as an Epistemic Equalizer
Evolutionary Psychology Rejects the Notion of Free-Floating Memes
The Co-Adapted Meme Paradox