Now although he's only fathered one daughter, albeit he's had three different life's mates,
he did father the meme.
Now listen, I want to give honor where honor is due here because people always tell us
about how these scientists have given us so much and we enjoy the cars and the airplanes
and we enjoy the smart phone and then we have the goal to deny their science religion.
Well let me point out to you that these apostles of sci-fi religion, they didn't give us the
technology that we have.
If you actually look at the achievements, the scientific achievements of Richard Dawkins,
Michio Kaku, Stephen Hawking, you'll find that they are nil.
But look, I have to give Richard Dawkins credit for one major achievement.
I'm going to be balanced up here because this guy did contribute something.
You know how when you're on Facebook, there are these things called memes.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Listen to me, don't tell me that evolutionary biologists don't invent anything.
Don't tell me that we do not benefit as humanity from these scientists such as quantum physicists,
theoretical astrophysicists and evolutionary biologists.
Oh no, these guys are bringing something to the table.
Did you know that Richard Dawkins came up with that word meme?
The word that we've all wondered how to pronounce our whole lives?
Is it mem, is it meme, is it me-me, me-me, you know, nobody knows how to pronounce it.
Couldn't you have come up with something where people would just know how to pronounce it,
Richard Dawkins?
But no, he came up with that term meme.
So he is someone who's contributed to our quality of life.
Listen to this, this is from Wikipedia.
Fathering the meme is what this section on Wikipedia is called.
So this guy is surviving, he is propagating his gene pool more than just through that
one daughter because he fathered the meme.
Dawkins coined the word meme, the behavioral equivalent of a gene, as a way to encourage
readers to think about how Darwinian principles might be extended beyond the realm of genes.
Get it, meme-gene?
Because memes are not always copied perfectly, don't you hate that?
They might become refined, combined, or otherwise modified with other ideas.
This results in new memes, which may themselves prove more or less efficient replicators than
their predecessors.
I'm sorry, I've got to get out the doctor's burgled glasses.
Thus providing a framework for a hypothesis of cultural evolution based on memes.
A notion that is analogous to the theory of biological evolution based on genes.
So basically what he's saying is, you know, yeah evolution, haven't you seen how memes
evolve?
Hello, memes evolve, well guess what?
So does everything else.
And if we could just get people to see how memes evolve, maybe they'll understand that
everything else evolved.
Now although Dawkins invented the term meme, he's not claimed that the idea was entirely
novel.
There have been other expressions for similar ideas in the past.
Now the popularization of these things led to the emergence of a new field called memeetics.
I mean you've heard of genetics?
Well now there's a new field called memeetics.
A field from which Dawkins has distanced himself.
Hey, so memeetics is the bastard son of Richard Dawkins.
He gave birth to a whole branch of science and he won't even claim it as his own.
Come on, own it Richard Dawkins, be proud of it.
A whole branch of science, you came up with it.
He's like, whoa, no, I don't want anything to do with, you know, all those memes on Facebook.
I don't want to be associated.
You know, those memes are evolving my friend.
Case closed.
James Gleick describes Dawkins' concept of the meme as his most famous and memorable
invention and that it is far more influential than his selfish genes or his later proselytizing
against religiosity.
Oh, you think you're going to go down in history, Richard Dawkins, for being against religion?
Nope, it's the meme.
It's memeetics.
You coined it, buddy.
Own it.