Susan Blackmore

Susan Blackmore’s idea of memetics is controversial because not many believe it is scientific at all. A meme is “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture” (Blackmore, 7). Blackmore describes this as singing “Happy Birthday” to someone or a handshake could be a meme. A meme is a form of imitation. I say a form of it because Blackmore points out some differences between the two. The idea of memes is criticized by scientists because they do not feel like

Understanding the humans is one of the most difficult things one learn in life, form how it works to the science behind it. Susan Blackmore’s, “Strange Creatures” brings to light all the struggles we go through and some of our abilities can be misleading. She begins the passage by differentiating humans from animals. She also tells her audience about Memes which seem to be successful due to not only their purpose, but their host’s devotion. If a person became easily influenced by a meme they would

existential core of worry, a clenched, demonic doubting that overrides evidence, empiricism, plain common sense” (Slater234). The meme theory states that a meme consists of “everything that is passed from person to person” (Blackmore 37). In “Strange Creatures” by Susan Blackmore and “Who Holds the Clicker?” by Lauren Slater both authors discuss the control humans have over their minds. In “Who Holds the Clicker” Lauren Slater discusses DBS (deep brain simulation), which is a type of psychosurgery

We have three replicators 1. Genes 2. Memes 3. Fremes (I have called them that). These three replicators are selfish in that they contiuously try to replicate. In the book by Susan Blackmore, it is mentioned that the reason why we cannot stop thinking is because there are too many memes in our memory that can find their place in the brain. Hence, we continuously keep on thinking, but at the cost of higher energy requirements. Indeed, thinking utilizes more brain power which in turn

Humans have mastered the skill of copying others. Mostly everyone follows what they were shown; they copy whatever they were taught. This is the idea of memes being passed down. Susan Blackmore describes how memes have taken over our lives. She talks in her article, “Strange Creatures,” what memes are and how the theory of “selfish meme theory” is being shown throughout living creatures. Meme is the idea of imitating someone else's thoughts. “Selfish” is implied as thoughts being passed down and

behavior is controlled. In Susan Blackmore’s essay “Strange Creatures” she explains the imitative intricacies of how human behavior exists through her meme theory. In a similar attempt to explain behavior, Malcolm Gladwell in his essay “The Power of Context” discusses human behavior from a social perspective through the Broken Windows theory. Individuals control

decided to go through with the surgery. He went against the norms of society in order to find his true identity. Even the novel, The meme machines “strange creatures” agrees with this. It states in the article, “We copy each other all the time”. (2, Blackmore). In order to be an individual, the person must differentiate himself from the rest of

Angela Chhour Dr. Simon Wickhamsmith Basic Comp 15 September 2015 Memes: The Parasite Living Off of Mankind In Susan Blackmore’s paper, “Strange Creatures”, she claims that humans are nothing but hosts to metaphorical parasites called ‘memes’. A meme is something that is passed from person through person by imitation. Blackmore’s theory of memetics suggests that memes are feeding off of humans in terms of wanting to be continued without any benefit to the individual. This theory is comparable to

became more engrossed in her studies the core of her personality that kept her at her roots disappeared and she was consumed by the Cambridge life style. She lost herself in Cambridge because she was imitating the Cambridge life style and according to Susan Blackmore’s essay “Strange Creatures” humans imitate naturally to learn. As humans imitate they change and because they change, their voices change as well; building an idea within us that our voices need to be unified, or singular. When we change

Human Into Animals There are humans in the world that strive to become more animal like. Whether they just act like ones, or have surgical operations to look more like one, they try to become more like an animal. In her essay, "Dr. Daedalus," Lauren Slater suggests that by altering our physical selves to emulate something more animal, our brains, and possibly even our souls, we become somehow more animal as well. She feels that we transform, and become more animal like every time we alter our body