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Quote by Susan Blackmore

“Just as the design of our bodies can be understood only in terms of natural selection, so the design of our minds can be understood only in terms of memetic selection.”

Quote by Susan Blackmore

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Susan Blackmore
Susan Blackmore

Susan Blackmore is a British writer and cognitive scientist known for her in-depth research into consciousness, death, and parapsychology. Her work explores the nature of human consciousness and how we understand death and life. more

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“I shall borrow two words used for a slightly different purpose by the great demographer Alfred Lotka to distinguish between the two systems of heredity enjoyed by man: endosomatic or internal heredity for the ordinary or genetical heredity we have in common with animals; and exosomatic or external heredity for the non-genetic heredity that is peculiarly our own - the heredity that is mediated through tradition, by which I mean the transfer of information through non-genetic channels from one generation to the next.”

MenMeanTwoDifferentUsedPurposeNextAnimalCommonGenerationsInformationOrdinaryTraditionEnjoyedInternalsTransfersHeredity
Book:The Threat and the Glory: Reflections on Science and Scientists
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“We have seen that in certain respects operant reinforcement resembles the natural selection of evolutionary theory. Just as genetic characteristics which arise as mutations are selected or discarded by their consequences, so novel forms of behavior are selected or discarded through reinforcement.”

FormCertainNaturalNovelTheoryBehaviorConsequenceAriseCharacteristicsSelectionNatural SelectionSelectedDiscardedMutationReinforcement
Book:Science And Human Behavior
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“The evolution of cultures appears to follow the pattern of the evolution of species. The many different forms of culture which arise correspond to the "mutations" of genetic theory. Some forms prove to be effective under prevailing circumstances and others not, and the perpetuation of the culture is determined accordingly.”

DifferentFormCultureTheoryEvolutionCircumstancesProveSpeciesPatternsDeterminedArisePrevailingMutation
Book:Science And Human Behavior
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“There is a striking parallel between the spreading of germs and the spreading of ideas or propaganda. On the one hand we are dealing with a virus which can be transported and transmitted under certain conditions which favor or limit its transportation or transmission: on the other hand with ideas, religions, and doctrines, which can be described as germs, benevolent or malevolent, according to the point of view one takes up. These germs can either remain at their source and be sterile, or emerge in the spreading of infection.”

IdeasHandsCertainViewsConditionsSourceLimitsPoint Of ViewFavorsDoctrinePropagandaParallelsVirusesTransportationGermsBenevolentInfectionTransmission
Author:Andre Siegfried
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