“Earth now has three replicators – genes (the basis of life),
memes (the basis of human culture) and temes (the basis of
technology),” asserts Blackmore, “I argue that the information
copied by books, phones, computers and the Internet is the
beginning of this third replicator and consequent new evolutionary
process.”
The concept is important because it bridges the gap between
ideas and technology and lays the foundation for more formalized
understanding of what technology is and how it operates.
Here’s her recent TED presentation on
the topic:
What’s the future significance? Blackmore happens to think that
as we automate temetic processes we could be creating a
computational system that ultimately usurps us.
“At the moment temes still need us, but if teme machines became
self-replicating then we humans would be redundant and they could
carry on without us. ... If anything of our civilisation is to
survive then either we have to ensure that climate change and
environmental degradation do not kill us off, or self-replicating
teme machines must appear before this happens.”
