C'est la même chose

We are first introduced the idea of "meme" in Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene. Dawkins explains this idea as a cultural transmission or a unit of imitation. Some "examples of meme are tunes, ideas, catch phrases, clothes, fashions." (192) They "propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation." (192)

The website www.9gag.com, itself is full of memes. This website point is to entertain with humor its viewers. They show the same pictures, to make of fun of different real life scenarios. Examples of these memes, are shown below. They are not only seen on 9gag, although. They are able to be published throughout other world wide websites like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Its originality, starts to fade, and sooner or later, there is more than just one meaning. 

The Most Simple Game Ever Invented.

The title says it all. The game introduced in chapter 12 of this book is probably one of the easiest games I've ever played. Dawkins himself says that "it is so simple that I have known clever men misunderstand it completely, thinking that there must be more to it." (page 203)

This books explains it with a banker who pays out winning to the two players. "Suppose that I am playing against you. There are only two cards in each of our hands, labelled COOPERATE, and DEFECT. to play we each choose one of our cards and lay it face down on the table. Face down so that neither of us be influenced by the other's move: in effect, we move simultaneously. We now wait in suspense for to turn the cards over.The suspense is because our winnings depend not just on which card we have played (which we each know). but on the other player's card too (which we don't know until the banker reveals it). (page 203)

The cards that are played with are 2 by 2, meaning that there are four outcomes. 

"Outcome I: We both played cooperate. The banker pays each of us $300. This is respectable sum is called the Reward for the mutual cooperation. 

Outcome II: We have both played defect. The banker fines each of us $10. This called the Punishment for mutual defection. 

Outcome III You have played cooperate; I have played defect. That banker pays me $500 (the Temptation to defect) and fines you (the Sucker) $100. 

Outcome IV: You have played defect; I have played cooperate. The banker pays you the temptation payoff of $500 and fines me, the Sucker, $100." (page 203)

The whole idea of a dilemma starts when both of players play the defect card. From that second, one of the platers suffers the penalty for mutual defection. If one of them would have cooperated, the Sucker's payoff, either way would have been worse. No matter which way you can go, DEFFECT will always have the best outcome. The 'prisoner' comes from an imaginary example, which two men are in jail. What happens through out this games depends on what each on them do, and neither of the prisoners know what crime they have committed. The payoffs in this case, of course are "not in dollars, but in jail sentences... Both players know that whatever their opponent does, they themselves cannot do better than defect., yet both also know that if only both had cooperated, each one would have don better. If only... if only... if only there would be some way of reaching an agreement" (page 205-206) to make things easier. 

After reading the whole introduction of this, we started to play this game. We changed the payoffs into our own grading system, and started to play against each other. Seeing as we switched the payoff to our grading system, it was pretty obvious that the results of this game were going to have an impact on our grade. We saw how the suckers suffered, and how the temptation of defect, really does benefit all.  We analyzed this game and realized how it is valid for social interactions. Today, we live in a very competitive society. The only thing that people want in the world is success, and they will do whatever takes to get there. Some will cheat, and some will cooperate. There will be cases when those who cheat (play the defect card) and up winning, and seeing how thing are, they win most of the time. It's very rare to see others cooperate for their own benefit. They just think about themselves, why would they care about those who might get in the way, right? When we played this game in class, we see how people would start of cooperating, but as soon as the game was about to end, people played their defect card, and the player being played against, almost felt like they were being stabbed in the back. Maybe the whole idea of the defect card being the most beneficial outcome is to prove how selfish people can actually be. 

Whale vs. Dawkins

In class we heard a podcast about a whale being trapped in various nets. The divers who were out to save her believe that her pain was unexplainable. Removing net by net, and finally freeing this whale from pain, the divers start to feel that the whale was thanking each of them. As she would look deep into their eyes, it was almost like she was showing the gratitude that she felt. Richard Dawkins wrote the Selfish Gene in 1976. It's pretty basic on biology, but he mostly shares his point of view. He believes that whales or animals in general aren't able to feel anything at all. It's not scientifically  proven. If anything animals act the way they do because of the benefit received, or one that they will receive. This is exactly what Dawkins explains in his 10th chapter of the book. 

In his book he gives various specific theories that support his idea of animals being nothing but selfish. The first theory is none as the cave theory. It's suitable for camouflaged birds that crouch frozen in the undergrowth when danger is coming towards them. He states, "suppose a flock of such birds is feeding a field. A hawk flies past in the distance. he has not yet seen the flock and he is not flying directly towards them, but there is danger that his keen eyes will spot them at any moment and he will race into the attack. Suppose one member of the flock see the hawk but the rest have not yet done so. this  one sharped- eyed individual could immediately freeze and crouch in the grass. But this would do hime little good because his companions are still walking around conspicuously and noisily. Any one of them could attract the hawks attention and then the whole flock is in peril. From a purely selfish point of view the best policy for the individual who spots the hawk first is to hiss a quick warning to his companions and so shut them up and reduce the chance that they will inadvertently summon the hawk into his own vicinity." (page 168)   

The second theory is called Zahavi's theory. It can be put like this: "the crucial bit of lateral thinking is the idea that sotting, far from being a signal to other gazelles, is really aimed at the predators. It is noticed by the other gazelles and it affects their behavior, but this is incidental, for it is primarily selected as a signal to the predator. Translated roughly into English it makes: 'Look how high I can jump, I am obviously such a fit and healthy gazelle, you can't catch me, you would be much wiser to catch my neighbor who is not jumping so high!' In less anthropomorphic terms, genes for jumping high and ostentatiously are unlikely to be eaten by predator because predators tend to choose prey who look easy to catch..... According to this theory, the display is far from altruistic. If anything it is selfish, since its object is to persuade the predator to chance somebody else." (page 171)

In my opinion, I do believe that animals are much more than selfish. They can feel. They don't a spindle cell to feel anything either. They are living organism, just like we are. Just because they don't have five fingers on each hand, or on each foot, does not make them any less sensitive. We can get hurt, animals can too. We both can feel pain and both can feel scared. For example, a dog might feel the same pain we do when someone steps on his tail, just like us when we fell from our bikes. Bogs cry, when someone steps on them, and we cry when we fell off our bikes. We know a dog is scared when he hides behind his owners legs, and when we were little we would do the same thing with our parents. When a dog sees another dog he tends wags his tail, and maybe even bark to show excitement. We tend to smile, or jump up and down. So how is it that animals don't feel anything? The fact that they express things differently, doesn't mean that they are not capable of feeling. 

The Vocabulary Gene

Generations: a single stage in the development of populations 

Meiosis: process by which the number of chromosomes per cell is cut in half through the separation of homolog chromosomes in a diploid cell.

Heredity: passing of traits to offspring from previous ancestors.

Ancestor: One from whom a living organism is descended.

Point mutations: an error corresponding to single misprinted letter in a book. It is rare but clearly the longer genetic unit is. The more likely it is to be altered by a mutation somewhere along its length.

Inversion: rare kinds of mistake or mutation which has important long term consequences.

Selfishness: lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure.

Population: group of individuals of the same species that live in the same area







Identity: the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.

Crossing over: process in which homologous chromosomes exchange portions of their chromatids during meiosis.

Embryonic Development: controlled by an interlocking web of relationships so complex that we had best not contemplate it. No one factor, genetic or environmental can be considered as the single cause of any part of a baby. All parts of a baby have a near infinite number of antecedent causes.

Prentice Hall Biology
New Oxford American Dictionary
The Selfish Gene