4 ms·
Memetics is much more potent than genetics. We're about to achieve much more than people could 2000 years ago, not because humans have genetically evolved to be
by machinerychorus 4y ago
Memetics is much more potent than genetics. We're about to achieve much more than people could 2000 years ago, not because humans have genetically evolved to be that much smarter, but because we have memetically evolved much more sophisticated social structures. Genetics is still important, and augmenting individual intelligence should still be pursued, but memetics is in the driver seat now.
- watercooler_guy 4y agoCould you expand on what you mean by this? What kind of new social structures are enabling progress in this way?
- machinerychorus 4y agoNew forms of government, larger and more complicated corporations, public schooling, labor unions, global shipping routes, universities, remote work, wikipedia, internet forums, open-source software development, stock markets, etc etc. None of these required a genetic change in the individuals involved, just a "memetic" change in the way the individuals acted, communicated, and thought.
- walleeee 4y agohorizontal transfer via memetics is not guaranteed to be a productive or stabilizing force in the long term, it could be convincingly argued many of our nastiest problems today derive from immaturity in handling novel forms of information flow and hybrid agency enabled by modern social and physical technology the task, imo, is to remove memetic agency from the driver's seat and put ourselves back in it, or if we want a chauffeur at least to make sure it's taking us into a viable future