Culture survives by reproducing itself. Ultimately it can only do this by aiding its bearers in reproducing themselves.
Not so. Part of the point of The Meme Machine was that this isn’t true; memes (which are a kind of culture?) can be harmful to their bearers in every way and yet still successful.
Consider viruses and parasites. They typically harm their bearer’s reproductive chances, and harm their bearers in other ways as well. Just not enough that they die before passing on the virus/parasite.
I did say “ultimately”. I know about the possibility of horizontal cultural transmission, and I discuss it later in the article. I should read TMM, maybe there are great examples of horizontal cultural transmission beating out vertical transmission. In the case we’re discussing here, I doubt it. I think the West’s cultural infectivity will weaken as its economic dominance slips.
TMM IIRC has an a priori argument that we should expect horizontal transmission to beat vertical transmission often: It happens faster. Replication rate of memes is orders of magnitude faster than replication rate of genes. It is surprisingly analogous to viruses/parasites in that regard. Genes do evolve over time to be more resistant to viruses/parasites; this is why the native Americans were disproportionately wiped out by disease compared to Europeans, who were disproportionately wiped out compared to Africans. However, despite this, viruses/parasites remain prevalent in the world, even (especially) in Africa. The solution to the puzzle is that the diseases are evolving too.
Not so. Part of the point of The Meme Machine was that this isn’t true; memes (which are a kind of culture?) can be harmful to their bearers in every way and yet still successful.
Consider viruses and parasites. They typically harm their bearer’s reproductive chances, and harm their bearers in other ways as well. Just not enough that they die before passing on the virus/parasite.
I did say “ultimately”. I know about the possibility of horizontal cultural transmission, and I discuss it later in the article. I should read TMM, maybe there are great examples of horizontal cultural transmission beating out vertical transmission. In the case we’re discussing here, I doubt it. I think the West’s cultural infectivity will weaken as its economic dominance slips.
TMM IIRC has an a priori argument that we should expect horizontal transmission to beat vertical transmission often: It happens faster. Replication rate of memes is orders of magnitude faster than replication rate of genes. It is surprisingly analogous to viruses/parasites in that regard. Genes do evolve over time to be more resistant to viruses/parasites; this is why the native Americans were disproportionately wiped out by disease compared to Europeans, who were disproportionately wiped out compared to Africans. However, despite this, viruses/parasites remain prevalent in the world, even (especially) in Africa. The solution to the puzzle is that the diseases are evolving too.