Virus of the Mind is the first popular book devoted to the science of memetics, a controversial new field that transcends psychology, biology, anthropology, and cognitive science. Memetics is the science of memes, the invisible but very real DNA of human society. In Virus of the Mind, Richard Brodie carefully builds on the work of scientists Richard Dawkins, Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel Dennett, and others who have become fascinated with memes and their potential impact on our lives. But Richard goes beyond science and dives into the meat of the issue: is the emergence of this new science going to have an impact on our lives like the emergence of atomic physics did in the Cold War? He would say the impact will be at least as great. While atomic bombs affect everybody's life, viruses of the mind touch lives in a more personal and more pernicious way. Mind viruses have already infected governments, educational systems, and inner cities, leading to some of the most pervasive and troublesome problems of society today: youth gangs, the welfare cycle, the deterioration of the public schools, and ever-growing government bureaucracy. Viruses of the mind are not a future worry: they are here with us now and are evolving to become better and better at their job of infecting us. The recent explosion of mass media and the information superhighway has made the earth a prime breeding ground for viruses of the mind. Will there be a mental plague? Will only some of us survive with our free will intact? Richard Brodie weaves together science, ethics, and current events as he raises these and other very disturbing questions about memes.
[...]... Each of these paradigm shifts took some time to penetrate the scientific community and even longer to become accepted by the general public Viruses of the mind, and the whole science of memetics, represent a major paradigm shift in the science of the mind Because understanding this new science involves a significant change in the way people think about the mind and culture, it has been difficult for them... January 22, 1995, picked up on the growing use of the word meme and mildly attempted to marginalize it: “A skeptic might wonder what the notion of a meme adds to the paradigm of cultural evolution Perhaps there is nothing new under the sun.” By the end of this book, you will discover that rather than adding to the existing paradigm of cultural evolution, memetics itself is a new and more powerful paradigm... understanding of memetics With that understanding, I hope, comes a call to action for anyone concerned with the future of human life — The first concept the star of the show—is the meme, which I introduce in Chapter 1 and which plays a leading role throughout this book The meme, which rhymes with “beam,” is the basic building block of culture in the same way the gene is the basic building block of life As... and most profound insight from the science of memetics: your thoughts are not always your own original ideas You catch thoughts—you get infected with them, both directly from other people and indirectly from viruses of the mind People don’t seem to like the idea that they aren’t in control of their thoughts The reluctance of people to even consider this notion is probably the main reason the scientific... myself of many of the memes that I got as I grew up and then reprogrammed myself with new memes What new memes would you choose to reprogram yourself with, given the chance? That’s entirely up to you I had no idea what that even meant when I started this research Now that I do, I choose to program myself with memes that support my values in life rather than ones that support the agendas of viruses of the. .. Chapter 2, memes are not only the building blocks of culture on a large scale—making up countries, languages, and religions—but also on a small scale: memes are the building blocks of your mind, the programming of your mental “computer.” — Second is the concept of virus It’s well known that viruses exist in biology and in the world of computers Now we’ll see how they show up in the world of mind and... scientific theory unifying biology, psychology, and cognitive science is here An interdisciplinary effort by scientists in all those fields over the last 20 years or so—really back to 1859 and Charles Darwin, if you like—has produced a new science called memetics The science of memetics is based on evolution Darwin’s theory of the evolution of species by natural selection utterly transformed the field of biology... I’ll discuss scientists’ most current theory of evolution in Chapter 4 and how it applies to memes in Chapter 5 — The fourth concept necessary to understanding mind viruses is the new science of evolutionary psychology This field examines the biases and mechanisms of our minds that evolved to support our survival and reproduction Some of these biases take the form of psychological buttons that can be... the ways we get programmed by mind viruses in Chapter 8 In a way, mind viruses are the price of one of the freedoms most dear to us: freedom of speech The more freedom there is to put forth any communication, the more welcoming the environment for mind viruses Some mind viruses arise spontaneously, as I discuss in Chapters 9 and 10; some are created intentionally, as I cover in Chapter 11 But all of. .. and pernicious mind viruses And once the founder of the cult starts the process, the virus of the mind takes on a life of its own Because of mass media and direct elections, the U.S and other governments are becoming more and more subject to infection by mind viruses A politician today cannot be elected without coming up with an effective image that pushes people’s buttons and gets the votes “We’re having . (ISBN: 0-9 63600 1-2 -5 ) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brodie, Richard. Virus of the mind : the new science of the meme / Richard Brodie. truly valuable Virus! ” — Kevin Hogan, Psy.D., the co-author of Irresistible Attraction and author of The Psychology of Persuasion Virus of the Mind can do