Memetic evolution dominates biological evolution for the same reason.
Faster mutation rate doesn’t just produce faster evolution—it also reduces the steady-state fitness. Complex machinery can’t reliably be evolved if pieces of it are breaking all the time. I’m mostly relying No Evolutions for Corporations or Nanodevices plus one undergrad course in evolutionary bio here.
Also, just empirically: memetic evolution produced civilization, social movements, Crusades, the Nazis, etc.
Thank you for pointing this out. I agree with the empirical observation that we’ve had some very virulent and impactful memes. I’m skeptical about saying that those were produced by evolution rather than something more like genetic drift, because of the mutation-rate argument. But given that observation, I don’t know if it matters if there’s evolution going on or not. What we’re concerned with is the impact, not the mechanism.
I think at this point I’m mostly just objecting to the aesthetic and some less-rigorous claims that aren’t really important, not the core of what you’re arguing. Does it just come down to something like:
“Ideas can be highly infectious and strongly affect behavior. Before you do anything, check for ideas in your head which affect your behavior in ways you don’t like. And before you try and tackle a global-scale problem with a small-scale effort, see if you can get an idea out into the world to get help.”
Faster mutation rate doesn’t just produce faster evolution—it also reduces the steady-state fitness. Complex machinery can’t reliably be evolved if pieces of it are breaking all the time. I’m mostly relying No Evolutions for Corporations or Nanodevices plus one undergrad course in evolutionary bio here.
Thank you for pointing this out. I agree with the empirical observation that we’ve had some very virulent and impactful memes. I’m skeptical about saying that those were produced by evolution rather than something more like genetic drift, because of the mutation-rate argument. But given that observation, I don’t know if it matters if there’s evolution going on or not. What we’re concerned with is the impact, not the mechanism.
I think at this point I’m mostly just objecting to the aesthetic and some less-rigorous claims that aren’t really important, not the core of what you’re arguing. Does it just come down to something like:
“Ideas can be highly infectious and strongly affect behavior. Before you do anything, check for ideas in your head which affect your behavior in ways you don’t like. And before you try and tackle a global-scale problem with a small-scale effort, see if you can get an idea out into the world to get help.”