Here is a quick summary of how "primitive" bacteria replicate their DNA. It's quite obvious that this process didn't pop up "out of the blue". This is not a description of a "chemical reaction". " Horizontal Gene Transfer " is also extremely important, especially in providing bacteria with a means to evolve by "borrowing" genes from other, unrelated organisms. At this level of life on Earth, evolution is about gene transfer by any means possible. It is, in effect, a "wild west" scenario where genes struggle for survival with the survival of hosts (bacteria) being a side-effect. This is the scenario where Dawkins' " The Selfish Gene " seems most applicable.  At the time he wrote this book (as a young student himself), the seemingly mathematical rules of evolution were very much "in the air". The facts are more complicated. As you would expect, "Selfish Gene" was accidentally right abou...

The idea of the meme was invented by Richard Dawkins and hammered into its most robust form by Daniel Dennett. It is an extended analogy that claims that human ideas are somehow like genes and have their own process of evolution independent of the evolution going on in their "hosts", the human race. It's an attractive idea and it works well as a rhetorical device, especially the way that Dawkins and Dennett use it to attack religion as an infection of the brain. True believers in "memetics" claim that all of human thought is "infection" by memes - a strong claim that memetics is a fundamental explanation of mind. Memeticists claim that the brain is a "meme machine". The problem comes when you try to apply memes outside of the examples trotted out by the "founders". Personally, I can't figure out what a "meme" is. The old words of ideas, doctrines, theories and especially paradigm seem perfectly serviceable and don'...

\ Quick and dirty definitions, to be clarified as we go along: R Refers to the "real world" . Accepted wisdom is that we have no direct access to R.  It turns out that we actually do have quite a good access to the R domain - the M/R interface, also known as "Science". For the individual, the I domain is tiny compared to the vastness of both M and R. However, with effort and training, it is possible for the individual to open a tiny peephole into R - at least so far as to put to rest the notion that R does not exist at all - that it's all an illusion. M refers to "meme space" or the entire set of ideas, actual and possible. For example, all of Science exists in M, uncomfortably with all religions, past, present and future. It is everything we know, could know, or think we know, possibly including all those things that may be conceivable by some alien intelligence or even "God." M happily accommodates all the wrong ideas and the opposite of ev...

This talk introduces a recent book by Dennett, rehashing and updating his theories on the mind. I have the hard copy of the book on order. These comments refer to his summary of it delivered as part of the Google Talks series. It is much to Dennett's credit that, as he goes along, his ideas become more precise and articulate. His examples are more apt, his analogies closer to the "essence". He never seems to say, "I was totally wrong about this", but he does make progress - partly by not taking himself too seriously. It is much to Dennett's credit that he is rarely caught in an "argument" -- he sees an element of truth in almost everything, always putting his own ideas on the table without allowing opposition to get personal. This is good because he gets a lot of opposition. " Consciousness Explained " (1991) was a serious over-reach. Rather a mess that didn't come close to delivering on the promise in its title. Yet, in the interveni...

For those who still like memes, the reviews of this book on Amazon are worth reading.   The meme are a rhetorical device that can't stand up to the mildest of criticism.

D&D dance  around the terrible reality of death. It's fascinating to watch two of the world's leading atheists grapple with the big issue that religion supposedly deals with. Typically, Dawkins waxes eloquent, firing off an impressive display of wordy fireworks that almost makes you forget what he's talking about. We see them both grasping for "big ideas" that make life make sense. To my mind, they both avoid what Buddha saw: that suffering is inevitable. Suffering must be faced head-on. The "self" is ephemeral. All things come to an end. What D&D are doing is making death part of a grand and compelling story, which is exactly what "religion" does. Death is a terrible tragedy. Is it not possible to face it without fear, without rationalization?

Dawkins is the "pope" of not-something. Unlike the heros of Skepticism, Dawkins spends most of his energy on the attack against what he imagines to be "Theism". For many who have basically parked their spiritual side as part of there general rebellion in their teens and never thought of it since, Dawkins can seem like a revaluation.

The idea of a meme was introduced by Richard Dawkins in a final chapter of his popular 1976 book on genetics: "The Selfish Gene". Dawkins kicks around the meme idea with philosopher Daniel Dennett here . Even after 40 years, Dawkins still brings up the meme constantly, especially when he's talking about religion as a meme that "infects" the human brain. The word "meme" is now tossed around quite freely, almost a synonym for "idea", but usually confined to a "big idea" or at least one that is effectively communicated from person to person and somehow "survives" competition with competing ideas. Given " Surfaces and Essences " (S&E), we can immediately see that the meme is an explicit analogy with the gene. We can also ask if it's a very good analogy. Does it lead us to understand anything about ideas that we can't easily see without it? Does it mislead us to think that ideas have properties or behavior...

Interesting discussion between leading atheists  Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris , Ayaan Hirsi Ali A wide-ranging discussion of subtle issues with atheism, including an unusually subtle treatment of why people accept religion - the process of assimilation and the difficulty in freeing people from assimilation. Risks associated with criticizing Islam; When to take the gloves off - being polite to people who have been indoctrinated; Vetting the authorities; How liberal kids get assimilated to radical Islam; Sam Harris speaks eloquently about the powerful meme of Islam; Dawkins doesn't understand that everyone doesn't think like he does; Dennett refers to the "narrative arc" in TV shows and movies, which primes a person for assimilation; The appeal of Islam to intelligent, liberal women; Ali calls Islam a form of madness; Dennett compares crime committed for religious reasons with drunk driving Harris points out that religious delusion is excluded in DSM  Ar...

Daniel Dennett and Richard Dawkins share ideas on religion. The conversation is interesting because Dawkins is generally credited with the invention of the idea of the "meme" and Dennett is best known for making the idea more precise and useful. Interestingly, Dennett's grasp of evolution (and even memes!) seems to be more nuanced than Dawkins', even though Dennett is a philosopher and Dawkins' credentials are in biology. Dawkins focused originally on the idea that memes survived in a way analogous to evolution (In his preface to " The Meme Machine ", Dawkins admits that he's surprised that people took the idea seriously). The conversation struggles to keep this analogy going, trying to make the case that religion is a parasitic meme, surviving at the expense of the believer. It seems that Dawkins uses "meme" mainly as a rhetorical device -- part of his arsenal of weapons to attack what he imagines to be "religion". Dennett, on th...