In The Selfish Gene, a book we consider seminal and pivotal at Wunderkind, Richard Dawkins talks about one key difference between how genes replicate in biology vs. how memes replicate in society—the fidelity of replication. In other words, how perfect is the copy each time a strand of DNA replicates? Well, quite perfect when it… Read more »
A colleague of mine, Michael Di Leo, recently gave me the wonderful little book This Will Make You Smarter, a series of short essays by a variety of ridiculously brilliant scientists and thinkers. Reading the book is like walking through the Smithsonian: display after display of radiant little gems. One of my favourite essays is… Read more »
When Richard Dawkins made the “discovery” (or more accurately, had the insight) in 1976 that there are two “replicators” on this planet, namely genes and memes, I was eight years old and watching the Fourth of July fireworks from the roof of our house in Chatham, New Jersey. Jimmy Carter was president, Farrah Fawcett was… Read more »