The Meme Machine

In the book, Blackmore tries to create a consistent vocabulary, since memetics has had a wide range of different terminologies and therefore, in Blackmore's opinion, many misleading concepts. Some of the terms that are central in her book include: • Copy-the-product: e.g. make a copy of the soup. This is more prone to error since it requires an analytic capability of the soup itself and then a synthetic ability to combine the recognised elements. Any inserted errors will be passed on in the event of this copy of a soup being copied. • Copy-the-instructions: e.g. make a copy of the soup recipe. This is less error prone since the important elements of the soup are already identified and the synthetic method explained. Any errors in using the recipe will not be passed on to future copiers since they will receive the recipe itself. • Meme Fear: The idea that we are vessels for memes unacceptably undermines the popular understanding of free will and autonomy. • Memeplex: Memes that are replicated together, such as religions and cultures. • Memetic Theory of Altruism: She proposes that meme theory explains altruism better than genetics. That other things being equal, more people will observe altruistic behavior than selfish behavior, will like the altruistic person better than the selfish one, and will be more likely to adopt the behaviors of the altruistic person than the selfish one. ==Reception==