"Good" Memes

As this blog was initially started to document personal thoughts, I figured I might as well do some of that.

I've been working on adding footnotes and adding an addendum to the journal article I presented a while ago. I've been learning that the academic world is slower than I personally would like it to be, but that's another issue.

Every time I begin to discuss the new advance in memetics that the article discusses on the connectedness of memes in the public consciousness, I am faced by a persistent and annoying question.

Is it good?

Of course, this is a question about the technology.

Is it good that the internet allows us to communicate so much faster?

Is it good for our culture?

Is it good for the quality of information?

I object to the question, of course. This is not uncommon. Much of the time, a question built to commandeer a conversation is objectionable, and this is one of those occasions.

The objection is on two grounds.

The first is that it doesn't make a damn bit of difference. If technology is going to have an impact, it's going to have an impact, and we can't (and shouldn't) sacrifice technology because of it. The advance in technology is not simply good, but necessary.

The second is that it's not really offering an arbitrary criteria for good.

Is good a matter of the beneficiality for us, for human beings, as a species? Or is good a matter of increasing the success of memes?

Of course, it seems obvious to the person asking the question that they were inquiring about the first one, but I make the differentiation intentionally.

As memes develop, as they evolve, they are not at all concerned with us. Dawkins makes a point of that in the Selfish Gene, when the concept was introduced, but it is clear simply through observation. The memes use us when they need to, they destroy us when it suits them better. They operate on their own prerogative (it's not a conscious decision, but rather one dictated by the circumstances under which they evolve; that's not important, though).

If we want the memes to be good in that first sense then we have to make a point of propagating the memes that are beneficial.

Some regard this as a sort of memetic eugenics, like artificial selection. It's not. It's a natural selection. As a medium of replication (and, make no mistake, the human being is a medium of replication), its within our best interest to select in favor of memes that are beneficial. That's a natural function, and part of the role we play as meme machines.

So, as cliche as it sounds, the memes have always been what we make them. The technology changes those memes, but they are still what we make them.

Dan Dennett talks about waging a war on destructive memes, and this is a good idea. Natural selection tends, historically, in favor of memes that advance the survival of their hosts, but that is not always true, and some of the most successful memes are destructive ones.

It is important that we find ways to minimize those destructive memes, maximize the success of the memes most beneficial for us.

This, of course, is the general purpose of my endnote, but it really isn't fair to write an addendum to address a question that I then claim is a stupid one. It also seems a bit nonsensical to answer a question that I think is stupid (though I find that I do it a lot of the time).

Anyway, as this is what my life is coming to, I figure it might be worth writing about.