|
About the author
|
|
|
George R. Andrews, 69, has always been deeply interested in psychology, philosophy and education. He loves children and enjoys working with them. In 1999, he was invited to teach Computer Literacy at a Christian school where one of his granddaughters attended.
He is a highly experienced observer of physical systems, organizations and individuals. He has earned BSE and MSEE degrees from California State University at Los Angeles, where he was inducted into three scholastic honor societies.
He is retired. His careers, in sequence, have been: microwave radio technician in the army, electronics technician in the Radio Research Lab at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, aerospace engineer designing logic and computers, and writing advanced software. He has also been an inventor, small business owner and operator, consulting design engineer, and teacher of computer literacy for nearly three years (2 classes each of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade).
Please visit his education website. It includes information on reforming and redesigning education.
Click Here
|
The concept of a meme is not well known. The author introduces it because it is a useful idea that will tie together parts of the overall contents and meaning of the author's writings.
Memes function in a way similar to genes (as in DNA). Both affect who we are, and how we behave. Memes are virtually anything that can created in the mind, which we hold to be true: ideas, mental constructions, concepts, goals, methods for doing something, ways of organizing or thinking about something, perspectives and rules.
Memes come in all sizes and shapes such as a piece of music, plans to build a 747 airplane or a single, short sentence about life. They can apply to individuals, groups or most of a society. Societal memes constitute a base that determines, to a considerable extent, how most individuals in that society think. They can be called societal perspectives or societal viewpoints. Thus, they can have a profound impact, either positively or negatively, upon that society.
For example, democracy is a meme. There have been many societies where the idea of democracy did not exist. In those societies the operating meme was probably something like, "the king makes all the important decisions."
Life-Goals and Life-Rules are some of the memes that a person has in his own mind. They are ideas and ways of thinking. Life-Goals are conscious or unconscious descriptions of what you want to be like, and of how you want other people to think of you.
Life-Rules are the rules for guiding your own life to reach the Life-Goals you set for what kind of person you wish to become and be. They guide you in everyday living and activities. Life-Rules often encompass your impact upon others, and their reaction and subsequent impact upon you. They can deal with virtually everything you think of or do.
Some memes are the mind-tools you need to live your life. Memes are the overwhelming mechanism by which you grow up and become competent in every area of life. Very nearly all of the memes you will need in life were created before you were born. You must either learn them, be able to quickly find them when you need them, or be able to reinvent them. Many memes are learned in school.
Memes may function in a way similar to DNA, but there are contrasts. It is completely impossible to learn all the memes available to us. Making good use of memes requires that we have mastered how to find the memes we need when we need them. The meme we call "The Internet" allows us to do this. Our future development will be because of new memes.
Genes
|
Memes |
Change only by accident of mutation.
|
Can be created or improved by thinking. |
Change is VERY slow.
|
Change is VERY fast. |
Passed only downward through the family tree.
|
Can be passed downward through the family tree, and to anyone in any generation. |
Impact only individuals within the same family tree where the original mutation occurred.
|
Can impact entire societies and the whole world. |
It takes many many generations for a gene to spread widely.
|
Major impact upon society can take only a few years. The Internet is a good example.
|
Evolution via genes is slow and slowing even more. The existence of many new medical and social support memes suppresses evolution through genetic changes. Our memes very often remove the force of the "survival of the fittest" pressure that selects good mutations, and deselects bad mutations.
|
Evolution via additions to and changes in our memes is accelerating very rapidly. New memes stimulate and facilitate the creation of other new and even more powerful memes. The idea of gene mapping and its now successful completion will lead to a virtual explosion of new knowledge and fantastic advances in medicine and biology. |
There has not been any really significant changes in our evolution due to genes in the last 50,000 years!
|
Evolution due to the creation of new memes is occurring at an incredibly fast pace. New memes are created daily at a furious rate. They are responsible for the advancements made in civilization over the last 50,000 years! |
You don't have to memorize all the memes you will have to use. Many times, memes can be found when they are needed. This is much easier now with the Internet and our powerful search engines.
Memes can be about thinking processes. That is, algorithms that guide us to clear thinking. Memes can and should be redundant, supportive, and complementary between themselves. Memes should NOT be contradictory, but sometimes they are! Contradictory memes create problems for the person holding them and for the people they deal with.
Our civilization improves because the memes created in one place by one person can be transmitted or taught to the next generation, and also they can be transmitted from one corner of a society to another corner in the same generation. Civilization has advanced only through the creation and evolution of memes, and NOT the evolution of genes. Without new memes having been created, learned and used, we would still be cavemen.
Memes are passed on by the act of learning. Sometimes this is by the learner simply watching what others do. Sometimes it is by direct teaching, as from a parent to a child, or teacher to a class. Sometimes it is by self-teaching, say from reading a book.
Without new memes created in the future, we cannot advance beyond were we are now. In your life, you may be able to create new memes that never existed before. If they are good ones, they may spread throughout society and pass downwards for many generations. The memes you might create may help mankind.
New memes are created when people think them up. One of the greatest and most powerful attributes of humans is their ability to solve problems. We do this by creating and applying new ideas. We can create new ways of doing things. We can create new ways of thinking about old things.
|
