Memes And Morality

The concept of meme can be fully appreciated only if the term "gene" is well understood. It is strongly recommended that the blog Genes and Memes is read before proceeding further.

What makes human beings distinct from the rest of the living creatures is perhaps the tool  of "language" that we came to possess, somewhere along the tortuous path of biological evolution.   Language enables us to share ideas with each other in a more sophisticated and nuanced manner than was ever possible without this tool. It is the tool of language that has led to the "memetic revolution".

For those who are new to "memes", a meme is simply an idea that copies itself from one brain to another brain through language or imitation -- and which often gets mutated (altered) during the process of repeated copying. Memes are like genes -- but memes transmit ONLY horizontally among people after they are  born, whereas genes transmit ONLY vertically from parent to offspring, by way of inheritance at the time of birth.

The term “meme” was coined by Richard Dawkins in the book, The Selfish Gene. He was explaining how genes that replicate with high fidelity but with rare mutations, accumulate complexity, given an environment that enables some lineages to survive and others to terminate. He wanted to show that this had nothing to do with the particular molecular structure of the gene.

 Dawkins wanted to show that any entity, anywhere in the universe, if capable of high fidelity replication (with minor errors), could possibly accumulate complexity through natural selection. It was to illustrate this point that he mentioned that we do not have to go far in search for such an entity. He was referring to the unit of memory content that copies from one brain to the other. He called this replicating entity the “meme” – to suggest its location in the memory, and because this rhymes with “gene”.

 

It seems that the name “meme” itself was a successful meme – the way the term proliferated by copying on to so many brains in the past few years!

 

To clarify, a meme need not ONLY refer only to entities that reside in the memory cells within the human brain. A book (or a quote from this) that gets copied (or read) over and over is a meme. A melodious song that spreads across population is a meme. A vicious rumour is a meme. All superstitions are memes. A scientific or a political idea is a meme. A tool (such as a hammer, or a match box) is a meme – such tools encapsulate ideas that get replicated over and over again…

Successful genes are not necessarily those that benefit the organism; but those that (somehow) perpetuate gene lineages. Just so, successful memes are not necessarily those that benefit people;  but those that (somehow) perpetuate meme lineages.

Memes by way of religious ideas have been very successful in the past 7000 or so years -- though their net benefit to humanity or individuals is open to debate! In general, morality memes (especially those that needlessly conflict with basic human urges) often lead to self doubt and to cognitive dissonance.

Rational discussions often help to mitigate cognitive dissonance. This could be because these pass on the onerous "responsibility" of choosing our ethical values to ourselves – through reasoning and debate (within ourselves and with others).

The point is that in a realistic sense, morality can only be based on a perception of one’s own long term benefits -- and that such perception is a matter of individual judgment, based on available factual information (and not religious diktat!). Once this is understood, it becomes clear that morality and altruism can only be enlightened strategies to achieve realistic long term benefits.

This attitude towards morality is NOT cynical as it first sounds. Religion too is based EXACTLY on the same principle -- be "good"  in your life, so that you go to heaven when you die; or so that you achieve moksha from the cycle of rebirths!

But where religions err is in the circumstance that its identification of "morals" is based on unverified facts (at best), or on falsehoods (at worst). The "moral values" that are specified by religion are those that have been "canned" several thousand years back. And moreover, these are rarely intended to promote long term benefit of individuals within their lifetimes; or even the benefit of humanity as a whole. The "promised"  benefits would come almost always only after death of the person! Individuals have no role to play in REALISTICALLY assessing their own long term benefits (based on current situation, or facts as available now) – frozen morality is shoved down the throat of individuals.

The genetically acquired strategies of deer (on how to avoid getting killed and eaten up by running away from lions); or of lions (on how to get nutrition by hunting deer) are very much based on "analysis" by the trial and error process of biological evolution. That is to say, any strategy that survived (by way of deer or lion behaviour), is one that in the past helped gene lineages to persist (rather than to abruptly terminate).

Human beings too have genetically acquired strategies. But for us, genes are not the only medium through which these strategies come to us. We have language and memes that enable us to learn from the experience of others. We have the ability to "override" gene strategies with meme strategies, if current situation so warrants. In using this "override" feature, we may succeed, or we may fail -- and we need to learn from trial and error within lifetimes. Or more significantly, we have the ability to learn from the failed or successful experiences of others, as conveyed to us through language!

Religious morals are less effective because these are based on "canned" information and morals -- and not on a realistic analysis of current circumstances and available facts; nor on reasonable judgment of what ought to be our ethical stand, given the present circumstances.

Original at : http://creative.sulekha.com/memes-and-morality_308340_blog