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What people (aside from rulers) don't like about hierarchal societies is that they don't exist for all their members in the same way. They provide a life of unbelievable luxury and ease for the rulers and a life of poverty and toil for everyone else. The way rulers benefit from the success of the society is vastly different from the way the masses benefit, and the pyramids and the temples testify to the importance of the rulers, not to the masses who build them. And so it goes, through every phase of life in a hierarchal society. Beyond Civilization

New book from Daniel Quinn! If They Give You Lined Paper, Write Sideways "One of the most troublesome questions I've been asked--and it's been asked hundreds of times--is: 'Where do these strange ideas of yours come from?' In the beginning, I thought it was just the usual where-do-you-get-your-ideas? question that all authors receive. My readers soon set me straight. Read more ... Excerpt 1 Excerpt 2 Excerpt 3

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UNIT 6 Survival Machines

The German physicist Max Planck remarked that "An important scientific innovation rarely makes its way by gradually winning over and converting its opponents. . . . What does happen is that its opponents gradually die out and that the growing generation is familiarized with the idea from the beginning." How does this exemplify the idea that "we're the disposable vehicles in which our memes are riding to immortality"?

What makes analog an appropriate designation for analog devices? Where does the "analogy" come in?

"Just say no" was a popular meme of the 1980s. It was thought that if everyone would "just say no," the drug problem would disappear. Has anyone every offered you this meme to hold onto as a guiding principle? Why do you think it failed?

Can you think of any memes your parents have passed on to you that you'll pass on to your children? Can you think of any that you won't pass on?
Write a paper giving some examples of memes that are "newborn in one generation, swaggering with power in the next, doddering in the next, and laughably old-fashioned in the next." [My country right or wrong comes to mind.]
Ask your parents what "My country right or wrong" means to them. Then write a paper comparing the way they feel about this meme to the way you feel about it.

Back to UNIT 5 Genes and Memes

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Ahead to UNIT 7 The Best Way To Live