Selfish gene theory predicts that, in conflicts between genes and the bodies they create, genes will almost always prevail. But with the evolution of the mneme, all of that has changed. Humans have developed the idea (itself a mneme) of genetic engineering. The technology potentially allows us to snip genes we don’t like out of our genomes. Clearly, in our modern age mnemes trump genes. Indeed mnemes are the most powerful things in the world. Around two hundred years ago a man called James Watt developed a mneme involving coal, steam and movement—and as a result the very composition of Earth’s
...more
