Helena Cronin once wrote the nice book The Ant And The Peacock, which included somne positive comments about memes. However, now we have this:
The eminent philosopher sat frozen in horror, forkful of lunch poised between plate and mouth. What enormity had caused the shock? The conversation had turned to cultural evolution. And I had suggested that there is no such thing. There's culture; there's history; there's change; there's progress; there's technological innovation; there's growth of knowledge; there's social learning; and there's lots more. But there's no cultural evolution.
It's flat denial of the large literature on cultural evolution. Helena Cronin obviously doesn't have a clue what she is talking about.
These days, it's rather weird for me to think of this parallel universe which some evolutionary biologists inhabit - where culture doesn't evolve. I think some of these folk still need to get on the internet and read up about the topic before opening their mouths.
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Cultures begin with intelligent design (some smart guy creates the culture) and then devolve into oblivion. Then another smart guy comes and creates a new culture, and it too devolves into oblivion because the people who inherit it aren't as smart as its creator. Cultures don't evolve--they degenerate, de-evolve.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, memes are a degeneration of culture, as anyone who's ever been to Ebaumsworld knows. Memes don't evolve culture -- they destroy it.
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