“Virus of the mind” – margin notes

This book was published in 1996 by Richard Brodie, the original author credited with publishing Microsoft Word. Although I may be reading it 15 years late, it seems that some of the concepts are more relevant today than when the work was published.

These are unformatted margin notes from my reading, published here in my customary fashion as a memory aid:

the trick to learning a new paradign  p. XV

evolutionary psychology (was controversial) p XVI

What are the interesting units of imitation? p 4

4 characteristics of a virus: 1) penetrate, 2) copy, 3) issue instructions, 4) spread

meme, memetics=study of meme pool

evolution by natural selection is a much misunderstood science

evolution (creative) vs. entropy (destructive) are opposites

humans have natural breeding tendencies for lower IQ

memetic evolution has little to do with genetic evolution

“selfish meme” concept explains how culture works

4 Fs of biology = fighting, fleeing, feeding, f (breeding)  = drive

Memes involving these basis drives spread faster

We [ay more attention to the memes that push our primary buttons = evolutionary advantage

2 ways to improve verbal communications: 1) talk louder, 2) listen closer

We are evolving toward a world of memes and mind viruses that replicate better

kluge?

the future: power and profit visuses p 196

MLM = survival of the fittest; a higher moral value

“beliefs are like cow paths” p 204

Book: The Celestine Prophesy – there are no coincidences p 208

listening to lectures is one of the least effective ways to learn? p 224

teaching “new math” led to morequestioning minds and dissatisfaction with status quo

asking questions: what to learn?  p 226

“marriage is the world’s best (and frequently most expensive) personal growth workshop”.

power corrupts

seperation of school and state.


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *