Notes on meme misconceptions:
- What are some typical misunderstandings about memes?
- The main misunderstanding is thinking that evolution is a metaphor
- Meme evolution theory is seen as hand-waving
- Genetic evolution is the only one seen as science
- Memes get lumped in with evolutionary psychology, which is hand-waving and telling stories
- Memes involve literal evolution
- Evolution can apply to anything that can replicate with variation and selection
- Ideas can be copied and there are variations in the ideas being copied and there is selection among ideas
- The main concepts with genetic evolution are replicators, variation, and selection
- Genes are replicators
- Even some supposed experts do hand-waving with memes
- David Deutsch is the only one who ever took memes seriously
- He applied technical views on evolution to memes
- He developed the idea that rational and anti-rational memes are the two replication strategies
- Only Deutsch and his fans have done any good work in this field
- Much is known about evolution in a technical/detailed way but this doesn’t get applied to memes
- Memes are treated like psychology where standards are low
- Psychology stories do have some value but it’s not science
- Memes are ideas so epistemology is relevant
- People don’t understand evolutionary epistemology
- Applying to evolution to ideas involves more than just memes
- Understanding how learning works via evolution is another component
- Guesses and criticism as Popper discovered
- Static memes
- These are the memes that disable creativity
- Prevent criticism thus prevent rejection of meme
- Misunderstandings of static memes
- People think this makes sense but don’t integrate it into their thinking
- Not recognizing that that they are puppets of memes themselves
- Static memes are determining their lives, instead of their choices
- The problem is urgent
- They need to acknowledge their own situation regarding static memes
- Start researching by learning Popper and evolution
- How can I detect this?
- What can be done about it?
- How can I defend against it?
- How do I limit the role of static memes in my life?
- How can I control my life instead of being controlled?
- Vague intuitions are exactly the kind of thing that memes are good at controlling
- Anywhere it’s easy to be biased is where static memes are good at influencing and manipulating
- Using intuition is like saying the memes told me I don’t have meme problem
- This one issue should motivate people to avoid having their life be a waste
- Not knowing about this is like being blind to reality and living by a script someone else wrote
- People don’t want to learn and think and study
- Partly due to not knowing how
- Mostly they get stuck at the beginning
- Lack energy once they are stuck