Minds have evolved randomly and the products of their dim calculations are so many whispers in the atomic dark! Everything in human culture is an inherently worthless meme, including the theory that everything in human culture is an inherently worthless meme!
That Dennett has ever been taken seriously has always astounded me. "Dennett is many things, but a fluid and graceful writer of English prose is not one of them." That's putting it charitably. As often as not his writing is indistinguishable from what clinicians refer to as thought disorder.
The main device that Dennett uses for unraveling intelligence and minds is the concept of memes which was introduced by Richard Dawkins. According to Dennett, the co-evolution of genes and culture through memes is what makes human minds special. Again, gene-culture co-evolution is not a new concept, but Dennett explores it with verve and insight.
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