2-17-06
All the recent unrest in the world due to offensive cartoons is a good example of Memetic transmission. Ideas can be spread like genetic DNA with its own variation and selection, but at a much faster pace. Ideas can outstrip our biological development, especially given today's rapid communication technology. This can have disastrous consequences as variation can occur at the individual and group level while selection pressures do not necessarily weed out "bad ideas." Memes can survive, and yet be false but because they have survived long enough to be perceived as true. What is the best selection pressure we can use on memes? Critical thinking.
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