The Electric Meme - by Robert Aunger (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

From biology to culture to the new new economy, the buzzword on everyone's lips is "meme." How do animals learn things? How does human culture evolve? How does viral marketing work? The answer to these disparate questions and even to what is the nature of thought itself is, simply, the meme. For decades researchers have been convinced that memes were The Next Big Thing for the understanding of society and ourselves. But no one has so far been able to define what they are. Until now.

Here, for the first time, Robert Aunger outlines what a meme physically is, how memes originated, how they developed, and how they have made our brains into their survival systems. They are thoughts. They are parasites. They are in control. A meme is a distinct pattern of electrical charges in a node in our brains that reproduces a thousand times faster than a bacterium. Memes have found ways to leap from one brain to another. A number of them are being replicated in your brain as you read this paragraph.

In 1976 the biologist Richard Dawkins suggested that all animals -- including humans -- are puppets and that genes hold the strings. That is, we are robots serving as life support for the genes that control us. And all they want to do is replicate themselves. But then, we do lots of things that don't seem to help genes replicate. We decide not to have children, we waste our time doing dangerous things like mountain climbing, or boring things like reading, or stupid things like smoking that don't seem to help genes get copied into the next generation. We do all sorts of cultural things for reasons that don't seem to have anything to do with genes. Fashions in sports, books, clothes, ideas, politics, lifestyles come and go and give our lives meaning, so how can we be gene robots?

Dawkins recognized that something else was going on. We communicate with one another and we get ideas, and these ideas seem to have a life of their own. Maybe there was something called memes that were like thought genes. Maybe our bodies were gene robots and our minds were meme robots. That would mean that what we think is not the result of our own creativity, but rather the result of the evolutionary flow of memes as they wash through us.

What is the biological reality of an idea with a life of its own? What is a thought gene? It's a meme. And no one before Robert Aunger has established what it physically must be. This elegant, paradigm-shifting analysis identifies how memes replicate in our brains, how they evolved, and how they use artifacts like books and photographs and advertisements to get from one brain to another. Destined to inflame arguments about free will, open doors to new ways of sharing our thoughts, and provide a revolutionary explanation of consciousness, The Electric Meme will change the way each of us thinks about our minds, our cultures, and our daily choices.

Review Quotes

""The Electric Meme" is not only a critical, detailed and coherent development of the meme idea, it also improves our understanding of genes, prions, computer viruses, information theory and neurophysiology as well. Aunger even asks the most fundamental question of all -- do we have memes or do our memes have us?"--David L. Hull, Northwestern University, author of The Metaphysics of Evolution

"Sometimes it can take a generation for a simple concept to be clearly articulated...This is without question the most erudite and penetrating book yet written on memes. Potentially, it heralds the beginning of a new science."--Terrence W. Deacon, Boston University, author of The Symbolic Species

"Unlike others who write about cultural evolution, Robert Aunger has actually studied it in the field as a practicing anthropologist. He is also an accomplished evolutionary theorist. This makes him uniquely qualified to write about memes. In this clear, well-written, and challenging book, he addresses the important and difficult issues of memetics with ease, and puts forward novel ideas that are sure to stir great interest and also controversy."--Dan Sperber, French National Center for Scientific Research, coauthor of Relevance; author of Explaining Culture

"What makes "The Electric Meme" a welcome addition is that Aunger takes a serious crack at turning memetics into a more rigorous science, one that can uncover, like a microbiologist looking at a virus, both the structure and transmission of memes. Be warned, however: your memes may never be the same again."--Marc D. Hauser, Harvard University, author of Wild Minds

"What more, one might ask, needed to be said about memes? The answer turns out to be plenty, and Robert Aunger says it clearly, intelligently and entertainingly."--Richard Dawkins, Oxford University, author of The Selfish Gene

"With good examples and lively prose, Aunger explores the question: just how tangible are the units of cultural replication that we call memes? His far-reaching answers will surprise and stimulate readers."--Kevin Padian, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley

"With this book, Robert Aunger puts memetics decisively on the intellectual map. "The Electric Meme" will eclipse the field as the inaugural book of a whole new school of social science and cultural history."--Daniel Dennett, Tufts University, author of Consciousness Explained and Darwin's Dangerous Idea

Dan Sperber French National Center for Scientific Research, coauthor of "Relevance;" author of "Explaining Culture" Unlike others who write about cultural evolution, Robert Aunger has actually studied it in the field as a practicing anthropologist. He is also an accomplished evolutionary theorist. This makes him uniquely qualified to write about memes. In this clear, well-written, and challenging book, he addresses the important and difficult issues of memetics with ease, and puts forward novel ideas that are sure to stir great interest and also controversy.

Daniel Dennett Tufts University, author of "Consciousness Explained" and "Darwin's Dangerous Idea" With this book, Robert Aunger puts memetics decisively on the intellectual map. "The Electric Meme" will eclipse the field as the inaugural book of a whole new school of social science and cultural history.

David L. Hull Northwestern University, author of "The Metaphysics of Evolution""The Electric Meme" is not only a critical, detailed and coherent development of the meme idea, it also improves our understanding of genes, prions, computer viruses, information theory and neurophysiology as well. Aunger even asks the most fundamental question of all -- do we have memes or do our memes have us?

Kevin Padian Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley With good examples and lively prose, Aunger explores the question: just how tangible are the units of cultural replication that we call memes? His far-reaching answers will surprise and stimulate readers.

Marc D. Hauser Harvard University, author of "Wild Minds" What makes "The Electric Meme" a welcome addition is that Aunger takes a serious crack at turning memetics into a more rigorous science, one that can uncover, like a microbiologist looking at a virus, both the structure and transmission of memes. Be warned, however: your memes may never be the same again.

Richard Dawkins Oxford University, author of "The Selfish Gene" What more, one might ask, needed to be said about memes? The answer turns out to be plenty, and Robert Aunger says it clearly, intelligently and entertainingly.

Terrence W. Deacon Boston University, author of "The Symbolic Species" Sometimes it can take a generation for a simple concept to be clearly articulated...This is without question the most erudite and penetrating book yet written on memes. Potentially, it heralds the beginning of a new science.

About the Author

Robert Aunger received his Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA. He has taught at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the University of Cambridge. He was until recently a Research Fellow at King's College, Cambridge, and is currently affiliated with the Department of Biological Anthropology at the same university. He organized the first academic conference dedicated to memes, which resulted in his book Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science. He lives in Cambridge, England.