The Helm

WELCOME!

This page will contain many of my random thoughts and rants related to things I hear and think about on a daily basis.

 

 

First of all…Let me explain what a tememachine is…because it is not a simple concept to swallow.

A teme is a technological meme…

What is a meme?…

“A meme (pronounced /miːm/) comprises a unit or element of cultural ideas, symbols or practices; such units or elements transmit from one mind to another through speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena. The etymology of the term relates to the Greek word mimema for mimic.^[1] Memes act as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate and respond to selective pressures.^[2]

Richard Dawkins coined the word “meme” as a neologism in his book The Selfish Gene (1976) to describe how one might extend evolutionary principles to explain the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. He gave as examples melodies, catch-phrases, and beliefs (notably religious belief), clothing/fashion, and the technology of building arches.^[3]

Meme-theorists contend that memes evolve by natural selection (in a manner similar to that of biological evolution) through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritanceinfluencing an individual entity’s reproductive success. Memes spread through the behaviors that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Theorists point out that memes which replicate the most effectively spread best, and some memes may replicate effectively even when they prove detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.^[4]“

-Wikipedia

 

So basically this guy Richard Dawkins invented a word for something that we all clearly knew about. Memetics is simply a reiteration of cultural evolution apart from biological evolution…

I think Dan Dennet explains memetics really well in his TED talk about Dangerous memes…

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_dennett_on_dangerous_memes.html

OK so then what’s a TEME?

Well…the idea of a Teme was introduced by Susan Blackmore…

A Teme is a technological meme. It is the internet, TV, Radio, etc…

She describes Human beings as meme-machine…we are the carriers and judges of these memes, hosts to these evolving packages of knowledge.

But what is the host of the TEMES? Blackmore wants us to believe that we will lose control of the memes in the future to AI, to inorganic hosts capable of cultural evolution…

But i would like to think that WE are the TEMEMACHINES. The Millennium Generation. The Kids who grew up using the internet, and have been typing as long as they have been writing. 

We are the new emerging minds…and we are the TEMEMACHINES…

People who grew up as amalgamations of internet culture and information culture…in addition to the classical norms of influence…this, in not so many words, is a very big deal in my opinion.

Here is a link to her talk to see what I am talking about…

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html