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Fundamental Human Memes
A few weeks ago I was talking with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
_sps_ and wondered if there were, perhaps, human memes so fundamental to what makes us human so as to be passed pre-linguistically. Are there things we teach babies without knowing that we are teaching them, and what effect would it have if they weren't there? We agreed that there probably are such memes, but I could see no (humane) way of attempting to discover what they are.
Now, this fascinating bit of research turns up. Someone else has come at the problem from a completely different angle. He asked why the monkeys were so unlike apes mentally, when their brains are so similar. The answer may be in which memes are transferred to the infant, and the relative survival value of those memes in the different species' living environments. So, he has been raising monkeys in environments where communication and mimicry have survival benefits and trying to teach them basic ape behaviors. It appears to be working.
This has many implications. Firstly, it means that monkey brains are far more flexible than had been believed. Similarly, it may imply that human brains are far more flexible as well. If this is so, then one of the next stages of cultural evolution could be brought about by redesigning our most fundamental memes (a very dangerous proposition at our current level of understanding -- but not necessarily always so). It also suggests that Koko the Gorilla may not be the worlds smartest gorilla by some genetic fluke (She is, for example, the only gorilla to ever pass the "Mark test" for self-awareness). It seems very likely that human memes rely upon each other in a memetic ecosphere, much as species are interdependant in an ecology. Thus, it may be that Koko was lucky enough to have been infected early with some of the pre-linguistic human memes which predispose one to language. If there's any truth to this theory then it should be possible to teach the necessary memes to other, newborn gorillas in a process of cultural uplift. Heady stuff!
_sps_ and wondered if there were, perhaps, human memes so fundamental to what makes us human so as to be passed pre-linguistically. Are there things we teach babies without knowing that we are teaching them, and what effect would it have if they weren't there? We agreed that there probably are such memes, but I could see no (humane) way of attempting to discover what they are.Now, this fascinating bit of research turns up. Someone else has come at the problem from a completely different angle. He asked why the monkeys were so unlike apes mentally, when their brains are so similar. The answer may be in which memes are transferred to the infant, and the relative survival value of those memes in the different species' living environments. So, he has been raising monkeys in environments where communication and mimicry have survival benefits and trying to teach them basic ape behaviors. It appears to be working.
This has many implications. Firstly, it means that monkey brains are far more flexible than had been believed. Similarly, it may imply that human brains are far more flexible as well. If this is so, then one of the next stages of cultural evolution could be brought about by redesigning our most fundamental memes (a very dangerous proposition at our current level of understanding -- but not necessarily always so). It also suggests that Koko the Gorilla may not be the worlds smartest gorilla by some genetic fluke (She is, for example, the only gorilla to ever pass the "Mark test" for self-awareness). It seems very likely that human memes rely upon each other in a memetic ecosphere, much as species are interdependant in an ecology. Thus, it may be that Koko was lucky enough to have been infected early with some of the pre-linguistic human memes which predispose one to language. If there's any truth to this theory then it should be possible to teach the necessary memes to other, newborn gorillas in a process of cultural uplift. Heady stuff!
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The URL should now point to the correct article!