Memes1

back to http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/TauTology 
Memes,like fitness, 'group selection' etc are an addition to a cluster of terms , that on closer inspection consists of a sophisticated restatement that what happens, happens.
=== Memes tautology ===
http://leaderswedeserve.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/richard-dawkins-re-interprets-memes-and-offers-a-creative-tautology/
"..The whiff of tautology is stronger in the concept of a meme. The closest I get to understanding the memetic replicator is that humans have a deeply embedded inclination to imitate. Well, yes. So viral messages ‘go viral’ because they have something which triggers the imitative response...."
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/24/richard-dawkins-meaningless-meme-viral
==notes==
http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye/msg/4605c4a4aab43097?&q=natural+selection
by http://francishunt.blogspot.com/
Dawkins's "memetic theory of religion" is a classic example of the 
nonsense that is spawned when Darwinian thinking is applied outside 
its proper sphere. Along with Dennett, who also holds to a version of 
the theory, Dawkins maintains that religious ideas survive because 
they would be able to survive in any "meme pool", or else because they 
are part of a "memeplex" that includes similar memes, such as the idea 
that, if you die as a martyr, you will enjoy 72 virgins. 
Unfortunately, the theory of memes is science only in the sense that 
Intelligent Design is science. Strictly speaking, it is not even a 
theory. Talk of memes is just the latest in a succession of ill-judged 
Darwinian metaphors. 
Dawkins compares religion to a virus: religious ideas are memes that 
infect vulnerable minds, especially those of children. Biological 
metaphors may have their uses - the minds of evangelical atheists seem 
particularly prone to infection by religious memes, for example. At 
the same time, analogies of this kind are fraught with peril. Dawkins 
makes much of the oppression perpetrated by religion, which is real 
enough. He gives less attention to the fact that some of the worst 
atrocities of modern times were committed by regimes that claimed 
scientific sanction for their crimes. Nazi "scientific racism" and 
Soviet "dialectical materialism" reduced the unfathomable complexity 
of human lives to the deadly simplicity of a scientific formula. In 
each case, the science was bogus, but it was accepted as genuine at 
the time, and not only in the regimes in question. Science is as 
liable to be used for inhumane purposes as any other human 
institution. Indeed, given the enormous authority science enjoys, the 
risk of it being used in this way is greater." 
I hope to get around to making the odd comment myself in the next few 
days but I'm too tired now.
==links==
http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/Memes
Category:TauTology
Category:Dawkins
Category:Memes