Memes spread through the gene pool Richard Dawkins.

An interesting little video by Richard Dawkins.
A good little talk then it gets a bit weird.



I like Dawkins he explains how Human creativity is like a meme.

reply to post by boymonkey74

"you are open to whatever the universe may do," a Mentat instructor once said. "Your mind is not a computer; it is a response-tool keyed to whatever your senses display."

-Chapterhouse: Dune by Frank Herbert

People who believe that the mind can be replicated on a computer tend to explain the mind in terms of a computer. When theorizing about the mind, especially to outsiders but also to one another, defenders of artificial intelligence (AI) often rely on computational concepts. They regularly describe the mind and brain as the “software and hardware” of thinking, the mind as a “pattern” and the brain as a “substrate,” senses as “inputs” and behaviors as “outputs,” neurons as “processing units” and synapses as “circuitry,” to give just a few common examples.

Those who employ this analogy tend to do so with casual presumption. They rarely justify it by reference to the actual workings of computers, and they misuse and abuse terms that have clear and established definitions in computer science — established not merely because they are well understood, but because they in fact are products of human engineering. An examination of what this usage means and whether it is correct reveals a great deal about the history and present state of artificial intelligence research. And it highlights the aspirations of some of the luminaries of AI — researchers, writers, and advocates for whom the metaphor of mind-as-machine is dogma rather than discipline.

www.thenewatlantis.com...

I think Dicky Dawkins has been experimenting with hallucinogens. That was trippy as f€$k and that's just the shirt he was wearing.

Cool video though. I'm a big fan of Dawkins and I find the subject of memes fascinating.

reply to post by boymonkey74


I think it's important to put his presentation in the context it was intended, as I'm sure that there will be Dawkins detractors here shortly to talk about the brainwashing toward evolution and atheism.

He was giving the opening presentation at the Saatchi & Saatchi (ad agency) "New Directors Conference", which highlights innovative directors of ad, music, film.

This year's theme:

Always a Festival highlight, the Showcase presents a reel of carefully selected directors, representing the best new directing talent currently making waves around the globe. Each year the Showcase is wrapped around a theme, which is always brought to life with an on-stage performance in the main Cannes Grand Auditorium.

The power of the Internet on filmmaking today is evident on the reel, with Gevorg Karensky's accomplished student graduation film ‘GTA Rise' getting over 13.5 million hits on YouTube, and interactive directing trio One Pixel Wide's innovative promo for Masters in France, matching hashtagged vine films to song lyrics in a live feed.

He clearly was driving his point (made years ago about memes) home by ending in the typical YouTube style of auto tune and quick cut direction, which has become popular and an easily recognizable meme among the internet generation.

But yes . . . the producer of that segment went for "trippy".

Man... "meme live on even if your gene is wiped out..." thats deep!

I don't know if it's mentioned in the video, but Richard Dawkins is actually the coiner of the word 'meme'.

reply to post by Astyanax


Yeah, he actually was surprised of the internet phenomenon and call it a forced meme.