Several weeks ago I was contacted by On The Human, a forum for researchers across science and the humanities to share ideas, and asked if I would like to take part in an online debate in response to an essay by Susan Blackmore. The forum runs one of these debates every two weeks and there are some pretty interesting writers and debates (which - it seems - are moderated and time limited).
So, I looked out for Sue's essay, which appeared yesterday 23rd August. I thought about it (actually had a head start because we had debated temes during a memelab meeting) and posted my response this morning. Here is Sue's essay Temes: An Emerging Third Replicator, the collected comments, and Sue's responses to those comments.
Showing posts with label memetics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memetics. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Warwick Mimesis project visit to the lab
As a follow-up to a talk I gave last December in Warwick, we were visited in the lab today by a group of social and complexity scientists from Warwick including Frances Griffiths, Steve Fuller and Nick Lee. We had a hugely interesting day discussing the extent to which (or, indeed, if at all) robots could be used to model mimesis in society.
The day started with me describing the embodied imitation-of-movement experiments that we are currently doing here within the Artificial Culture project, and demonstrating the latest version of the Copybots experiment. After lunch we then had a round table discussion about whether or not such a simple model might have value in social science research and - somewhat to my surprise - there seemed to be strong consensus that there is value and that this (radical) new approach to embodied modelling is something we should actively pursue in future joint projects.
The meeting was filmed by Roger Stotesbury of Jump Off The Screen and I hope to post a link to the video record of the meeting on this blog.
Postscript: here is my blog post with Roger's film of the meeting.
The day started with me describing the embodied imitation-of-movement experiments that we are currently doing here within the Artificial Culture project, and demonstrating the latest version of the Copybots experiment. After lunch we then had a round table discussion about whether or not such a simple model might have value in social science research and - somewhat to my surprise - there seemed to be strong consensus that there is value and that this (radical) new approach to embodied modelling is something we should actively pursue in future joint projects.
The meeting was filmed by Roger Stotesbury of Jump Off The Screen and I hope to post a link to the video record of the meeting on this blog.
Postscript: here is my blog post with Roger's film of the meeting.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
The Mozart meme
Heard some great lectures yesterday evening at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institute. John Sloboda gave a wonderful talk about the psychology of music, and in particular what makes the difference between a musical genius and the rest of us. He showed, with some pretty compelling evidence, that firstly you need to start learning an instrument very young, and secondly you need around 10 years of averaging 2 hours per day of practice - but not just any old practice, it has to be strongly supported and guided - before then starting composition. Are musical geniuses born or made? John offered the view that it's much more down to nurture than nature. He suggested that genetics may account for musical deficits (such as the very small number of people who are genuinely tone-deaf) but probably not musical genius.
John told a story so fascinating that I want to recount it here. A US research team ran some IQ tests on a group of adults, one group immediately after listening to Mozart, the other (control) group without. The Mozart group showed higher IQ scores than the control group. Now that's interesting enough, but it's what happened subsequently and outside the research lab, that is really quite shocking. John recounted that a journalist reported this finding as "The Mozart Effect" and parents anxious to improve their youngsters' IQs started playing them Mozart, schools introduced the same practice, and in some US districts this became a requirement of the education authority. Pop-psych books were published and money was made. Google the Mozart effect and you'll see what I mean.
But does it work? No. John explained that the original study was done on adults and subsequent work has shown that the same effect isn't apparent in children, and even on adults the IQ raising effect wears off after 10 minutes or so. But that's the power of a great meme. The idea is so attractive that as soon as it catches hold the truth behind the idea becomes irrelevant. And of course Mozart already has almost mythical super-genius status, so the Mozart effect meme was already riding on a winner. Someone asked John if the same would have happened if the original study had used another composer's music. "Almost certainly not", he replied, "the Couperin effect, doesn't have anything like the same ring to it!"
But the world is full of such memes. Some emerge from flaky science, others from a flawed interpretation of otherwise good science. A particular hobby horse of mine is "The Big Bang". Popular culture regards the Big Bang as an established fact. But it isn't. There are two competing theories for the origin of the Universe: one is the big bang theory, the other is the steady-state theory. The problem with the steady-state theory is that it's just dull. Where's the excitement in the idea that the Universe has always existed? Like the Mozart effect, the big bang theory feeds a need. Finite creatures that we are, we like the idea that the Universe has a birth and a death. And if you believe in God, even better. The steady-state theory is not good news for theists.
Memes really are powerful magic.
John told a story so fascinating that I want to recount it here. A US research team ran some IQ tests on a group of adults, one group immediately after listening to Mozart, the other (control) group without. The Mozart group showed higher IQ scores than the control group. Now that's interesting enough, but it's what happened subsequently and outside the research lab, that is really quite shocking. John recounted that a journalist reported this finding as "The Mozart Effect" and parents anxious to improve their youngsters' IQs started playing them Mozart, schools introduced the same practice, and in some US districts this became a requirement of the education authority. Pop-psych books were published and money was made. Google the Mozart effect and you'll see what I mean.
But does it work? No. John explained that the original study was done on adults and subsequent work has shown that the same effect isn't apparent in children, and even on adults the IQ raising effect wears off after 10 minutes or so. But that's the power of a great meme. The idea is so attractive that as soon as it catches hold the truth behind the idea becomes irrelevant. And of course Mozart already has almost mythical super-genius status, so the Mozart effect meme was already riding on a winner. Someone asked John if the same would have happened if the original study had used another composer's music. "Almost certainly not", he replied, "the Couperin effect, doesn't have anything like the same ring to it!"
But the world is full of such memes. Some emerge from flaky science, others from a flawed interpretation of otherwise good science. A particular hobby horse of mine is "The Big Bang". Popular culture regards the Big Bang as an established fact. But it isn't. There are two competing theories for the origin of the Universe: one is the big bang theory, the other is the steady-state theory. The problem with the steady-state theory is that it's just dull. Where's the excitement in the idea that the Universe has always existed? Like the Mozart effect, the big bang theory feeds a need. Finite creatures that we are, we like the idea that the Universe has a birth and a death. And if you believe in God, even better. The steady-state theory is not good news for theists.
Memes really are powerful magic.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Life was tough for early memes
The really great memes* don't just emerge by chance. They have to be thought of, discovered, invented, created; not necessarily intentionally, or purposefully, but certainly recognised as valuable, either by the meme-originator or meme-copier.
And surely many of those early world-changing memes are things that can't be half-invented or discovered bit by bit. Like how to make fire, for example.
From a meme-perspective, it's hard for us to imagine what it must have been like for early memes. At that time our ancestors were animal-smart, instinctive creatures, probably living much as we see modern higher primates: social groups of chimpanzee or gorilla. Then development was slow, driven by gene- rather than meme-evolution. But there must have been a cusp, a point in evolutionary time when memes start to take hold and gene-meme coevolution starts up. How long was that cusp? Thousands... tens of thousands of years, perhaps.
Think of that period. There must have been countless instances when one smart individual in a group hits upon something useful, but for any number of reasons that discovery dies with its creator. Take fire-making, as an example. Perhaps none of the other individuals in the group are smart enough to recognise the value, or utility of fire-making. Or, worse-still, they are so terrified of the fire-maker's magic that they banish or kill the unfortunate innovator. Alternatively, there may be one or two individuals who do see that this is not something to be feared, but valued. But what if they're just not smart enough to be able to mimic the actions of the fire-maker? To propagate, memes need meme-copiers just as much as meme-originators, and so the fire-making recipe is lost because no-one can copy it. Now consider the larger context. Imagine that one tribe has learned fire-making, and is able to refine and pass the technique from one generation to the next. But then another tribe, larger and stronger, wipes out the fire-maker tribe because of fear, or envy. Or they get wiped out anyway because of famine, or any number of other natural disasters.
Life was precarious then, and so it was for memes too. My point is that many memes were probably thought-of, discovered or created, only to be lost again. Then a few hundred or few thousand years passes before they are thought-of all over again. How many times over did those early memes have to be re-invented before they finally found a foothold and became so widespread that only a major catastrophe affecting the whole population would threaten the meme?
One reason, I think, that this is hard for us to imagine (and construct models of), is that we are used to living in a time when life is easy for memes. Too easy perhaps. We are all surrounded by unbelievably expert meme-copiers. Indeed human beings have become so good at it that meme-copying is surely something that now characterises us as a species. Modern society, from a meme-perspective, is a rich and fertile substrate in which even the most inconsequential memes can thrive (like mobile phone ring-tones).
But it wasn't always so.
Life was tough for early memes.
-------------------------------
*For internet definitions of 'meme' see Google define: meme
And for Susan Blackmore's longer description click here.
And surely many of those early world-changing memes are things that can't be half-invented or discovered bit by bit. Like how to make fire, for example.
From a meme-perspective, it's hard for us to imagine what it must have been like for early memes. At that time our ancestors were animal-smart, instinctive creatures, probably living much as we see modern higher primates: social groups of chimpanzee or gorilla. Then development was slow, driven by gene- rather than meme-evolution. But there must have been a cusp, a point in evolutionary time when memes start to take hold and gene-meme coevolution starts up. How long was that cusp? Thousands... tens of thousands of years, perhaps.
Think of that period. There must have been countless instances when one smart individual in a group hits upon something useful, but for any number of reasons that discovery dies with its creator. Take fire-making, as an example. Perhaps none of the other individuals in the group are smart enough to recognise the value, or utility of fire-making. Or, worse-still, they are so terrified of the fire-maker's magic that they banish or kill the unfortunate innovator. Alternatively, there may be one or two individuals who do see that this is not something to be feared, but valued. But what if they're just not smart enough to be able to mimic the actions of the fire-maker? To propagate, memes need meme-copiers just as much as meme-originators, and so the fire-making recipe is lost because no-one can copy it. Now consider the larger context. Imagine that one tribe has learned fire-making, and is able to refine and pass the technique from one generation to the next. But then another tribe, larger and stronger, wipes out the fire-maker tribe because of fear, or envy. Or they get wiped out anyway because of famine, or any number of other natural disasters.
Life was precarious then, and so it was for memes too. My point is that many memes were probably thought-of, discovered or created, only to be lost again. Then a few hundred or few thousand years passes before they are thought-of all over again. How many times over did those early memes have to be re-invented before they finally found a foothold and became so widespread that only a major catastrophe affecting the whole population would threaten the meme?
One reason, I think, that this is hard for us to imagine (and construct models of), is that we are used to living in a time when life is easy for memes. Too easy perhaps. We are all surrounded by unbelievably expert meme-copiers. Indeed human beings have become so good at it that meme-copying is surely something that now characterises us as a species. Modern society, from a meme-perspective, is a rich and fertile substrate in which even the most inconsequential memes can thrive (like mobile phone ring-tones).
But it wasn't always so.
Life was tough for early memes.
-------------------------------
*For internet definitions of 'meme' see Google define: meme
And for Susan Blackmore's longer description click here.
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