Genes largely determine the neural infrastructure that memes run on
Genes are the stage, memes are the play
Plays that perform bad do not reproduce
In a sense evolution builds the roads which bias where cars can drive.
This limits the amount of suicidal thoughts the human race can have in the genome ... memes get selected for
Genes are gravity and it needs lots of escape velocity to go out of orbit
And concepts or memes are often linked to what the genome wants, therefore propagating itself.
It's the notion that we first perceive reality before we can abstract on top of it. The genome provides the
false dichotomy abstract thought and bottom up processing?
We build up meaning from our sense inputs until an experience comes to the forefront and neocortex can step in and build memes and abstractions on top of it
Just that abstract thought or memes are very often grounded in physical intuitions that are learned or expressed through our genes. This grounding is something that AIs have so much trouble with
or abstract thoughts are always composed of physical sense experiences that we can relate to. It's
Direct sensory experiences like light have to go through lots of layers of interpretation until we can see
Usually we have to preprocess our concrete sensory experiences before we can build memes on top of them. That sensory bottom up processing is genetic. I sometimes think of memes or ideas as the extended phenotype
Just that abstract thoughts or memes need to relate to some actual sense experiences. How the brain processes these is largely genetic
It's the notion that higher level thoughts or memes have to be grounded in experiences of the physical world. Our genes give us much of that
So to think about something abstractly you have to internally reference concrete experiences.
Genes carry the experiences of past generations AND also determine the brain structure that processes new sense perception. So all experiences are h
Our higher level thinking references experiences that are stored genetically or experience
So memes are downstream from genes. For example, if I have this meme that cobras are great pets
In design this is called desire lines: people vote for new infrastructure by breaking with current one
Memes can go beyond the gene provided infrastructure, but like cars on roads, are less likely to do so
Memes evolve faster, but they are constraint by the objectives of the genome.
Otherwise sex, food memes wouldn't be so prevalent