Dan Dennett: Ants, terrorism, and the awesome power of memes
http://www.ted.com Starting with the simple tale of an ant, philosopher Dan Dennett unleashes a devastating salvo of ideas, making a powerful case for the existence of memes — concepts that are literally alive.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes — including speakers such as Jill Bolte Taylor, Sir Ken Robinson, Hans Rosling, Al Gore and Arthur Benjamin. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, politics and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at
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Duration : 0:17:24
[youtube KzGjEkp772s]
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@invanorm
All …
@invanorm
All they’ve done is replace the word ‘idea’ with ‘meme’ and talk about ‘memes’ a lot littered with evolutionary language, that’s all. I could do the same replacing the word idea with ’sh*t’ and for a while it would seem convincing but the real import is in the ability for humans to create ideas and subsequently their own imperatives beyond the evolutionary imperative, not ‘memes’ or ’sh*t’.
‘Followers’ like hikanikanakanik hoover up this garbageplex without thinking it through.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@invanorm
The …
@invanorm
The thing is if your understanding of culture’s workings is only superficial then it may well look like they are the same and this is where the dogma comes in. Dennett and Dawkins have been trying to push Universal Darwinism (UD) dogma for years now. Clearly evolutionary theory is strong in the organic setting of nature but breaks down in the social world of humankind. It’s been 151 years since ‘Origin’ and despite numerous attempts culture remains a mystery to biology.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@invanorm
In his …
@invanorm
In his 1995 ‘Darwin’s Dangerous Idea’ book commenting on his colleague Richard Dawkins’ ill-though out memetics cut & paste job Dennett wrote that memetic evolution matched genetic evolution “quite exactly” which is complete garbage.
Dawkins himself now lecture (you tube ‘The Purpose of Purpose’) that:
“Cultural evolution is a new kind of evolution”
“superficially similar to the old genetic evolution…..at a rate which may be a million times faster.”
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@ …
@naturalpreservation Well. I haven’t seen much of the clip yet, but remember that Dennett is a philosopher and doesn’t claim to be much else beyond that.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@hikaniknak
It’s …
@hikaniknak
It’s rather sad that you think a reply beyond a ‘tweet’ is a long winded reply. In that statement alone you convey your attention span, and the working loading capacity of your mind.
I can see why you think Dennett holds so much weight. Or little.
Not all science can be twittered Meme Boy, you’ll learn that when you get older.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@hikaniknak
I’ll …
@hikaniknak
I’ll leave the retarded stuff to you, it’s clear you seem more intimate with the retarded state than myself. If you think that in the modern media age a ’science’ (McScience more like) that doesn’t have a journal, and not even an online journal has real weight and explanatory power then you are the one with issues.
Having established how low your standards are, it’s clear my understanding about culture is superior to yours. Keep that uncomfortable laugher coming Meme Boy.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@ …
@naturalpreservation
actually i’m laughing at retards that come onto youtube of all places to leave long winded replies to posts so they can feel smug and superior.
lol
retard
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@hikaniknak
I …
@hikaniknak
I wouldn’t say that Dennett was a retard, or you for that matter. It’s clear that he and Dawkins have crossed a line in reading Darwin and rather than using his work as a platform to go an discover further truth, they think Darwin is the truth. Truth full stop.
As soon as they did this they stop behaving scientifically and start behaving like the dogmatists they criticise in others. Memetics has no journal, not even an on-line journal.
Do you think memetics is a real science?
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@ …
@naturalpreservation
TL;DR
retard
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
so he thinks the …
so he thinks the minority on earth are correct lol…
well , that doesnt seem to fit the evolutionary model regardless how elaborate and punctual you are on the subject.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
google Doe’s …
google Doe’s Account, its insane
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
The state is a …
The state is a toxic idea.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
If we were ever to …
If we were ever to come upon a STD that went asymptomatic in men but drove women to really, really want sex that disease would spread though the world like crazy.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@ …
@naturalpreservation and @MultiUniv3rsal
Why did you two engage in this asinine argument over the youtube comment board? By participating you both look ridiculous.
and as for you naturalpreservation, there is nothing enlightened in your belief in God’s existence as a scientist…so calm down and stop revealing your confusion all over the internet
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
this guy is a hack
this guy is a hack
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Multi ways of …
Multi ways of saying nothing really – You are full of vacuous nothingness, so it’s easy to see why Dennett’s brand of assuredness even when he has no command of the subject matter is seductive to you: undergraduate infatuation.
I wouldn’t want to know any more about you, you’ve showed enough of your hand for me to glean that you don’t have the critical thinking required for the task at hand. Therefore your juvenile language falls on deaf ears.
You get saving y’hear.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
You still attack me …
You still attack me like you know one single fact about me, and make utterly baseless accusations. Every reply has been ad hominem.
Your belief in God will be my exit card, for one so hung up on the so-called ‘facts’.
What else can I say to you, except that our discussion is over.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Multi foul mouth – …
Multi foul mouth – Your effortless ease in using cursing and profanity is indicative of something. Big on the cursing and light on saying anything more substantial, maybe a little armchair psychology in there, so if you’re reading evolutionary psychology that would maybe explain it.
With your level of non-reading a modicum of certainty must be very modest indeed. You stick with your dogma, I’ll stick with discovery.
Good luck with that funny man.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Multideluded – I …
Multideluded – I don’t claim to be a guru but thanks for the compliment all the same.
Like I said, I’d start saving if I were you. There will be no glee, just sadness that you have so much conviction for memetic fiction.
In this day and age, a ’science’ with no journal, not even an on-line journal. I mean, come on surely you can see that beyond some you tube videos there is nothing there.
Dawkins concedes in The Extended Phenotype he hadn’t done the reading, something you have in common.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
I’m just going to …
I’m just going to say this once.
You know nothing about me, so don’t make assumptions.
You have no idea who I am or who I could be.
I however, took the time available to me to read your site and what it is you are propagating.
But I can tell, with a modicum of certainty, that you have poor punctuation, sentence structure, and vocabulary. This leads me to believe you are far from the guru you claim to be.
Have yourself a frabjuous day.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
@Multi Delusion
I …
@Multi Delusion
I care even less about what you think of me. You are way short of people like Clifford Geertz who said that a general theory of culture was increasingly unlikely.
If Geertz didn’t me off then a star-struck, gushing, infatuated undergraduate like you isn’t going to stop me anytime soon.
You’ve got more cursing and not a lot else.
You’re funny MD.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Mmmm Hmmm
You have …
Mmmm Hmmm
You have a crackpot philosophy.
Too bad for you. The do I care what you say about me?
Have fun getting laughed out of everything for a long time until it drives you to hang yourself.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Multi Delusion – …
Multi Delusion – Your immaturity only shine through when you reach for all too convenient (for you it seems) profanity and cursing. While not always it is usually a sign that someone is out of their depth and while struggling and scratching around for a response it’s sometimes easier, indeed it can be the last resort of the blinkered of view.
So I’m a tard am I, well that places you well below the level of tarddom when it comes to culture my undergraduate infatuante.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
Multi Delusion – …
Multi Delusion – It’s like you are talking to yourself. A general theory of culture generated from the social sciences, the custodians of social and cultural phenomena underlines the science method.
Dennett and Dawkins trying to shoehorn and cut & paste their way into/through culture in a forlorn attempt to Darwinise culture hasn’t worked for them or any other evolutionary approach over the last 151 years.
Memes are a dogmatic fiction and it says a lot about you that you are seduced by this.
May 8th, 2010 at 11:54 am
But continue as you …
But continue as you will, in my country, one of our ‘memes’ is free speech.
No matter how oblivious your opinions are, you can bend freedom of speech but never break it.
The floor is yours to espouse your flavor of dogma to homeless men, dogs, passing traffic, god, and whoever else is silly enough to listen to it.
I can assure you though, that you have wasted many a years to come to piss-poor conclusions.