How many Creationists do we have in the room? Probably none. I think we're all Darwinians. And yet many Darwinians are anxious, a little uneasy -- would like to see some limits on just how far the Darwinism goes. It's all right. You know spiderwebs? Sure, they are products of evolution. The World Wide Web? Not so sure. Beaver dams, yes. Hoover Dam, no. What do they think it is that prevents the products of human ingenuity from being themselves, fruits of the tree of life, and hence, in some sense, obeying evolutionary rules? And yet people are interestingly resistant to the idea of applying evolutionary thinking to thinking -- to our thinking.
Koliko kreacionistov imamo v sobi? Verjetno nobenega. Verjetno smo vsi pristaši Darwina. Pa vseeno so mnogi živčni, rahlo jim je neprijetno, radi bi videli nekaj omejitev, do kod deluje darvinizem. Že v redu. Poznate pajkove mreže? Seveda, te so produkt evolucije. Medmrežje? Nismo več prepričani. Jezovi bobrov, ja. Jez Hoover v Ameriki, ne. Kaj mislijo, da preprečuje rezultatom človeške bistroumnosti, da bi postali sadeži drevesa življenja, in tako na nek način sledili evolucijskim pravilom? In kljub temu se ljudje upirajo ideji, da bi evolucijsko razmišljanje uporabili za razmišljanje o razmišljanju.
And so I'm going to talk a little bit about that, keeping in mind that we have a lot on the program here. So you're out in the woods, or you're out in the pasture, and you see this ant crawling up this blade of grass. It climbs up to the top, and it falls, and it climbs, and it falls, and it climbs -- trying to stay at the very top of the blade of grass. What is this ant doing? What is this in aid of? What goals is this ant trying to achieve by climbing this blade of grass? What's in it for the ant? And the answer is: nothing. There's nothing in it for the ant. Well then, why is it doing this? Is it just a fluke? Yeah, it's just a fluke. It's a lancet fluke. It's a little brain worm. It's a parasitic brain worm that has to get into the stomach of a sheep or a cow in order to continue its life cycle. Salmon swim upstream to get to their spawning grounds, and lancet flukes commandeer a passing ant, crawl into its brain, and drive it up a blade of grass like an all-terrain vehicle. So there's nothing in it for the ant. The ant's brain has been hijacked by a parasite that infects the brain, inducing suicidal behavior. Pretty scary.
Govoril bom torej o tem in imel v mislih, da sledi še veliko predavanj. Si v gozdu ali na pašniku in vidiš mravljo, kako leze proti vrhu travniškega lista. Spleza na vrh in pade, in spet spleza, in pade, in spleza -- poizkuša obstati na samem vrhu trave. Kaj počne mravlja? Čemu je to dobro? Kaj hoče doseči, s tem da pleza na vrh travniškega lista? Kaj ima od tega? In odgovor je: nič. Nič nima od tega. Ampak zakaj potem to počne? A je okužena z virusom? Ja, zelo podobno. Kriv je metljaj. To je mali možganski črv. Parazitski možganski črv, ki mora priti v želodec ovce ali krave, da bi nadaljeval svoj življenjski cikel. Lososi plavajo proti toku, da pridejo do prostora za drstenje, in metljaji si prisvojijo mimoidočo mravljo, splezajo v njene možgane in jo vozijo na vrh travnatega lista kot terensko vozilo. Mravlja torej nima nič od tega. Parazit je ugrabil njene možgane, in jo prisilil v tovrstno vedenje. Strašljivo.
Well, does anything like that happen with human beings? This is all on behalf of a cause other than one's own genetic fitness, of course. Well, it may already have occurred to you that Islam means "surrender," or "submission of self-interest to the will of Allah." Well, it's ideas -- not worms -- that hijack our brains. Now, am I saying that a sizable minority of the world's population has had their brain hijacked by parasitic ideas? No, it's worse than that. Most people have. (Laughter) There are a lot of ideas to die for. Freedom, if you're from New Hampshire. (Laughter) Justice. Truth. Communism. Many people have laid down their lives for communism, and many have laid down their lives for capitalism. And many for Catholicism. And many for Islam. These are just a few of the ideas that are to die for. They're infectious.
Se kaj podobnega dogaja ljudem? Kaj takega, kar ni v prid lastnemu genetskemu napredku, pač pa nečemu drugemu... Verjetno ste že slišali, da islam pomeni "vdajo" ali "predajo lastnih interesov volji Alaha." Torej, ideje so tiste -- ne črvi -- ki ugrabljajo naše možgane. Ali pravim, da ima znatna manjšina človeštva ugrabljene možgane s strani parazitskih idej? Ne. Huje je. Večina ljudi jih ima. (Smeh) Veliko idej je, za katere se umira. Svoboda, če si z New Hampshire-a. (Smeh) Pravica. Resnica. Komunizem. Veliko ljudi je izgubilo življenje za komunizem in veliko za kapitalizem. In veliko za katolištvo. In veliko za islam. To je samo nekaj od idej, za katere se umira. So nalezljive.
Yesterday, Amory Lovins spoke about "infectious repititis." It was a term of abuse, in effect. This is unthinking engineering. Well, most of the cultural spread that goes on is not brilliant, new, out-of-the-box thinking. It's "infectious repetitis," and we might as well try to have a theory of what's going on when that happens so that we can understand the conditions of infection. Hosts work hard to spread these ideas to others. I myself am a philosopher, and one of our occupational hazards is that people ask us what the meaning of life is. And you have to have a bumper sticker, you know. You have to have a statement. So, this is mine.
Včeraj je Amory Lovins govoril o "nalezljivem ponavljanitisu." To je izraz za izkoriščanje, seveda. Gre za nerazmišljujoče inženirstvo. Večina kulturne aktivnosti, ki se širi, ni briljantno, novo, drugačno razmišljanje. Je nalezjivo ponavljalstvo. In ni razloga, da ne bi imeli teorije o tem, da lahko razumemo stanje te infekcije. Gostitelji se močno trudijo, da bi razširili te ideje na druge. Jaz sem filozof in ena naših poklicnih nevarnosti je, da te ljudje sprašujejo, kaj je smisel življenja. In potrebuješ nek standarden odgovor, saj razumete, neko pripravljeno izjavo. Ta je moja:
The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are and dedicate your life to it. Most of us -- now that the "Me Decade" is well in the past -- now we actually do this. One set of ideas or another have simply replaced our biological imperatives in our own lives. This is what our summum bonum is. It's not maximizing the number of grandchildren we have. Now, this is a profound biological effect. It's the subordination of genetic interest to other interests. And no other species does anything at all like it.
Skrivnost sreče je: najdi nekaj bolj pomembnega od sebe in temu posveti svoje življenje. Večina nas -- zdaj ko je "desetletje Jaza" za nami -- to dejansko počnemo. Tak ali drugačen skupek idej je preprosto zamenjal naše biološke obveze v življenju. To je sedaj naš summum bonum (najvišje dobro). To ni več maksimiziranje števila vnukov. To ima bistven biološki učinek. Genetske koristi so podrejene drugim interesom. Nobena druga vrsta ne počne ničesar podobnega.
Well, how are we going to think about this? It is, on the one hand, a biological effect, and a very large one. Unmistakable. Now, what theories do we want to use to look at this? Well, many theories. But how could something tie them together? The idea of replicating ideas; ideas that replicate by passing from brain to brain. Richard Dawkins, whom you'll be hearing later in the day, invented the term "memes," and put forward the first really clear and vivid version of this idea in his book "The Selfish Gene." Now here am I talking about his idea. Well, you see, it's not his. Yes -- he started it. But it's everybody's idea now. And he's not responsible for what I say about memes. I'm responsible for what I say about memes.
Torej, kako bomo razmišljali o tem? Na eni strani ima to biološki učinek in to zelo velikega. Brez dvoma. Torej, s katerimi teorijami bi lahko to razlagali? Z veliko teorijami. Pa bi jih lahko morda združili skupaj? Ideja o kopiranju idej; ideje, ki se kopirajo ob prenosu iz možgan v možgane. Richard Dawkins, ki bo govoril kasneje, je izumil izraz "memi," in predlagal prvo res jasno in živo verzijo te ideje v knjigi "Sebični gen." Sedaj jaz tu govorim o njegovi ideji. Ampak, vidite, ni njegova. Ja -- on jo je začel. Ampak sedaj je last vseh. In on ni odgovoren za to, kaj jaz govorim o memih. Jaz sem odgovoren za to, kar govorim o memih.
Actually, I think we're all responsible for not just the intended effects of our ideas, but for their likely misuses. So it is important, I think, to Richard, and to me, that these ideas not be abused and misused. They're very easy to misuse. That's why they're dangerous. And it's just about a full-time job trying to prevent people who are scared of these ideas from caricaturing them and then running off to one dire purpose or another. So we have to keep plugging away, trying to correct the misapprehensions so that only the benign and useful variants of our ideas continue to spread. But it is a problem. We don't have much time, and I'm going to go over just a little bit of this and cut out, because there's a lot of other things that are going to be said.
Pravzaprav, mislim, da smo vsi odgovorni ne zgolj za želene učinke naših idej, ampak tudi za njihove potencialne napačne uporabe. Tako je pomembno, mislim da tako Richardu kot meni, da teh idej nihče ne izkorišča oziroma napačno uporablja. Zlahka se jih narobe uporabi. Zato so nevarne. In skoraj polna zaposlitev je preprečevanje ljudem, ki jih je strah teh idej, da bi jih izmaličili in jih uporabljali za tak ali drugačen grozen namen. Tako moramo kar naprej delati na tem, poizkušati popraviti napačna razumevanja, tako da se širijo samo neškodljive in uporabne različice naših idej. Ampak to je težko. Nimamo veliko časa in šel bom le čez nekaj zadev ter spustil ostale, ker bo veliko povedanega kasneje.
So let me just point out: memes are like viruses. That's what Richard said, back in '93. And you might think, "Well, how can that be? I mean, a virus is -- you know, it's stuff! What's a meme made of?" Yesterday, Negroponte was talking about viral telecommunications but -- what's a virus? A virus is a string of nucleic acid with attitude. (Laughter) That is, there is something about it that tends to make it replicate better than the competition does. And that's what a meme is. It's an information packet with attitude. What's a meme made of? What are bits made of, Mom? Not silicon. They're made of information, and can be carried in any physical medium. What's a word made of? Sometimes when people say, "Do memes exist?" I say, "Well, do words exist? Are they in your ontology?" If they are, words are memes that can be pronounced.
Tako bi predvsem izpostavil: memi so kot virusi. To je dejal Richard leta '93. In lahko si mislite: "Kako je to mogoče?" "Mislim, virus je - kot vemo - snov! Iz česa so narejeni memi?" Včeraj je Negroponte govoril o virusnih telekomunikacijah, ampak -- kaj je virus? Virus je veriga nukleinskih kislin s karakterjem. (Smeh) Nekaj na njih jim omogoča, da se razmnožujejo bolje kot tekmeci. In to je mem; informacijski paket s karakterjem. Iz česa so narejeni memi? Iz česa so narejeni biti, mami? Niso iz silikona. So iz informacije in se lahko prenašajo po snovi. Iz česa so besede? Včasih, ko ljudje vprašajo: "Ali memi obstajajo," jim rečem, "A besede obstajajo? So del vaše ontologije?" Če so, potem so besede memi, ki se jih da izgovoriti.
Then there's all the other memes that can't be pronounced. There are different species of memes. Remember the Shakers? Gift to be simple? Simple, beautiful furniture? And, of course, they're basically extinct now. And one of the reasons is that among the creed of Shaker-dom is that one should be celibate. Not just the priests. Everybody. Well, it's not so surprising that they've gone extinct. (Laughter) But in fact that's not why they went extinct. They survived as long as they did at a time when the social safety nets weren't there. And there were lots of widows and orphans, people like that, who needed a foster home. And so they had a ready supply of converts. And they could keep it going. And, in principle, it could've gone on forever, with perfect celibacy on the part of the hosts. The idea being passed on through proselytizing, instead of through the gene line.
Poleg tega je še mnogo memov, ki se jih ne da izgovoriti. Poznamo različne vrste memov. Se spomnite Shaker-jev? Biti preprost? Preprosto, čudovito pohištvo? In seveda so zdaj skoraj izumrli. Eden razlogov zato je eno njihovih prepričanj, da je treba ostati v celibatu. Ne samo duhovništvo. Vsi. Ni presenetljivo, da so izumrli. (Smeh) Ampak to ni razlog, zakaj so izumrli. Tako dolgo so preživeli, ker takrat ni bilo socialnih varnostnih mrež. Bilo pa je veliko vdov in sirot, ki so potrebovali varen dom. Tako so imeli zalogo spreobrnjencev in so lahko preživeli. Tako bi lahko nadaljevali brez prestanka. Klub temu da so gostitelji v popolnem celibatu. Ideja se je širila s spreobračanjem namesto preko dedovanja in reprodukcije.
So the ideas can live on in spite of the fact that they're not being passed on genetically. A meme can flourish in spite of having a negative impact on genetic fitness. After all, the meme for Shaker-dom was essentially a sterilizing parasite. There are other parasites that do this -- which render the host sterile. It's part of their plan. They don't have to have minds to have a plan.
Tako lahko ideje živijo kljub temu, da se ne prenašajo preko genov. Mem se lahko razbohoti, kljub temu da negativno vpliva na genski napredek. Konec koncev, mem Shakerjev je bil parazit, ki sterilizira gostitelja. Obstajajo tudi drugi paraziti, ki to počno -- ki sterilizirajo gostitelja. To je del njihovega načrta. Ne potrebujejo razuma, da bi imeli načrt.
I'm just going to draw your attention to just one of the many implications of the memetic perspective, which I recommend. I've not time to go into more of it. In Jared Diamond's wonderful book, "Guns, Germs and Steel," he talks about how it was germs, more than guns and steel, that conquered the new hemisphere -- the Western hemisphere -- that conquered the rest of the world. When European explorers and travelers spread out, they brought with them the germs that they had become essentially immune to, that they had learned how to tolerate over hundreds and hundreds of years, thousands of years, of living with domesticated animals who were the sources of those pathogens. And they just wiped out -- these pathogens just wiped out the native people, who had no immunity to them at all.
Omenil bom samo enega od mnogih posledic pogleda s stališča memov, ki ga priporočam. Nimam časa za več. V čudoviti knjigi Jareda Diamonda "Puške, bacili in jeklo" govori o tem, kako so mikrobi bolj kot puške in jeklo tisti, ki so zavzeli novo -- zahodno -- hemisfero, ki je osvojila preostanek sveta. Ko so se evropski raziskovalci in pustolovci odpravili v tuje dežele, so s seboj prinesli mikrobe, na katere so bili imuni in na katere so se privadili skozi stoletja, tisočletja življenja ob domačih živalih, ki so izvor takih mikroorganizmov. In so jih izbrisali -- ti mikroorganizmi so enostavno izbrisali lokalno prebivalstvo, ki nanje ni bilo imuno.
And we're doing it again. We're doing it this time with toxic ideas. Yesterday, a number of people -- Nicholas Negroponte and others -- spoke about all the wonderful things that are happening when our ideas get spread out, thanks to all the new technology all over the world. And I agree. It is largely wonderful. Largely wonderful. But among all those ideas that inevitably flow out into the whole world thanks to our technology, are a lot of toxic ideas. Now, this has been realized for some time. Sayyid Qutb is one of the founding fathers of fanatical Islam, one of the ideologues that inspired Osama bin Laden. "One has only to glance at its press films, fashion shows, beauty contests, ballrooms, wine bars and broadcasting stations." Memes.
In to zopet počnemo. Tokrat to počnemo s strupenimi idejami. Včeraj je nekaj ljudi -- Nicholas Negroponte in ostali -- govorilo o vseh čudovitih stvareh, ki se zgodijo, ko se naše ideje razširijo, zahvaljujoč novi tehnologiji po vsem svetu. In se strinjam. Večinoma je čudovito. Večinoma čudovito. Ampak med vsemi temi idejami, ki slej ko prej odletijo v svet zahvaljujoč naši tehnologiji, je mnogo strupenih idej. Tega se že nekaj časa zavedamo. Sayyid Qutb je eden očetov skrajnega islama, eden ideologov, ki je navdihnil Osamo bin Ladna. "Treba je samo pogledati novinarske prispevke, modne revije, lepotna tekmovanja, plesne dvorane, vinske degustacije." Memi.
These memes are spreading around the world and they are wiping out whole cultures. They are wiping out languages. They are wiping out traditions and practices. And it's not our fault, anymore than it's our fault when our germs lay waste to people that haven't developed the immunity. We have an immunity to all of the junk that lies around the edges of our culture. We're a free society, so we let pornography and all these things -- we shrug them off. They're like a mild cold. They're not a big deal for us. But we should recognize that for many people in the world, they are a big deal. And we should be very alert to this. As we spread our education and our technology, one of the things that we are doing is we're the vectors of memes that are correctly viewed by the hosts of many other memes as a dire threat to their favorite memes -- the memes that they are prepared to die for.
Ti memi se širijo po svetu in izbrisujejo celotne kulture. Izbrisujejo jezike. Izbrisujejo tradicije in običaje. In to ni naša krivda, nič bolj kot takrat, ko mikroorganizmi ogrožajo ljudi, ki nanje niso razvili imunosti. Mi smo imuni na vso umazanijo, ki je za nohti naše kulture. Smo svobodna družba in tako dopuščamo pornografijo in podobno -- ob njih skomignemo. So kot manjši prehlad. Ne zdijo se nam nič posebnega. Moramo pa razumeti, da so za mnoge ljudi po svetu nekaj velikega. In na to moramo biti zelo pozorni, ko širimo naše izobraževanje in našo tehnologijo. Ena stvari, ki jih počnemo, je, da smo nosilci memov, ki jih mnogi gostitelji drugih memov pravilno dojemajo kot veliko grožnjo njihovim najljubšim memom, memom, za katere so pripravljeni umreti.
Well now, how are we going to tell the good memes from the bad memes? That is not the job of the science of memetics. Memetics is morally neutral. And so it should be. This is not the place for hate and anger. If you've had a friend who's died of AIDS, then you hate HIV. But the way to deal with that is to do science, and understand how it spreads and why in a morally neutral perspective.
Kako pa lahko ločimo dobre od slabih memov? To ni več naloga znanosti o memih. Memetika je moralno nevtralna. In taka mora biti. Tu ni prostora za jezo in sovraštvo. Če ste imeli prijatelja, ki je umrl za AIDS-om, potem sovražite HIV. Ampak s tem se lahko spoprimemo s pomočjo znanosti: lahko razumemo, kako se širi z moralno nevtralnega vidika.
Get the facts. Work out the implications. There's plenty of room for moral passion once we've got the facts and can figure out the best thing to do. And, as with germs, the trick is not to try to annihilate them. You will never annihilate the germs. What you can do, however, is foster public health measures and the like that will encourage the evolution of avirulence. That will encourage the spread of relatively benign mutations of the most toxic varieties. That's all the time I have, so thank you very much for your attention.
Najti je treba dejstva. Razumeti posledice. Veliko bo prostora za moralo, ko nademo dejstva in ugotovimo, kaj je najbolje storiti. In tako kot z mikroorganizmi, trik ni v tem, da jih iztrebimo. Nikoli ne bomo iztrebili mikroorganizmov. Kar lahko naredimo, je to, da razvijamo ukrepe javnega zdravstva in podobno, ki bodo spodbudili evolucijo imunosti. To bo spodbudilo širjenje nenevarnih mutacij najbolj strupenih vrst. To je ves čas, ki sem ga imel, najlepša hvala za pozornost.