Birth of a Meme

The Selfish Gene - 40th anniversary edition


I'm afraid I do not know, or wish to spend time learning, how to write a classic book review. Rather, I will provide what I would expect, and hope for, in such an endeavour. Basically, is it worth your time? Yes, in this case. And, What's it all about? Here's a brief synopsis:

It's incredibly well written, especially, for an academic-type book. It's crammed full of factoids and de facto anecdotes relating to non-human animals, bacteria and parasites. Don't get me started on the cuckoo, that nuisance.

The Selfish Gene (1976) is the book that has provided the most joy, to me, in 2018, at least. I was reminded of those great sir David Attenborough fronted wildlife documentary films. E.g. the 'Planet Earth.' series. The Selfish Gene is a Gene's eye view of survival. Your survival, in this context, relates to ensuring that an exact copy of yourself makes it into the next generation. The extras found in this edition, are well worth the ink. My kindle told me, to my delight, that I was only 63% through the book upon starting the chapter entitled 'Epilogue to 40th Anniversary Edition'. I generally believe, the less one knows about a book before reading it, or film,  before seeing it, the better. As such I'll leave the review there, almost. Do yourself a favour and read this book.

On to the birth of a Meme. I would like very much for professor Richard Dawkins, proposer of the Meme, perhaps in 'Epilogue to 50th Anniversary Edition', to enlighten me as to what, precisely, is a meme. Unlike genes, which cannot, to my limited knowledge, contain other genes, memes it would seem can contain memes. I'm assuming the same for the next paragraph.

My proposal is a word game that works as follows. Come up with a sentence(w[]) such that every word(w[n]) has 1 more syllable(s[]) than the previous word (w[n-1]). To be considered valid, the sentence must have a w[n], where the size of s[i] = 1, and words (w[]), such that, the size of s[i+1]=2, s[i+2]=3 etc.. In other words the sentence doesn't have to begin with w, where the size of s[0]=1, so this, for example, is valid: "I would like to know something.." The scoring begins at w[n=4]; arrays here are, as usual, zero-based. In this case, scoring begins at 'know', giving a score of 2. i.e. there are 2 words, in series, adhering to the rules.

What shall we call this meme? Any suggestions can be left as a comment along with an attempt (with a score >=4) at this new brain teaser. There is a prize to go along with the prestige of winning, the winner will get a brand spanking new hard back 40th Anniversary edition of The Selfish Gene

By the way, I started this therapy this week:



Comments

  1. To see how the other half livesJune 10, 2018 at 4:11 AM

    +1 cuckoo reference

    ReplyDelete
  2. ClaireJune 10, 2018 at 9:24 AM

    I adore generous avocados - name suggestion: (I adore) SyllyTrain

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jimmy TreanorJune 11, 2018 at 5:53 AM

    I also consider avocados unbelievably scrumdiddlyumptious .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DeclanJune 15, 2018 at 1:37 AM

      Amazingly, 'scrumdiddlyumptious' is a word

      Delete
    2. Jimmy TreanorJune 15, 2018 at 2:08 AM

      Not only that, it's a six syllable word and the highest score to date , unless somebody beats it (not tie with it Claire😁) I expect to declared 'winner alright' and look forward to my hardback copy of The Selfish Gene😉

      Delete
    3. ClaireJune 15, 2018 at 3:16 AM

      What's the deadline?

      Delete
  4. Jimmy TreanorJune 11, 2018 at 10:38 AM

    You could call it Sense and Syllability but I can't see any daily tabloids picking it up😃

    ReplyDelete
  5. ClaireJune 14, 2018 at 2:00 PM

    I also consider avocados unbelievably dissatisfactory

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ClaireJune 14, 2018 at 2:26 PM

      From a grammatical point of view, there is a finite number of maximum syllables. That is if the teaser requires me to start at a score of one. (Noun + adverb + adjective). Spoiling SyllyTrain.

      Delete
    2. DeclanJune 15, 2018 at 1:34 AM

      What's your point?

      Delete
    3. ClaireJune 15, 2018 at 3:15 AM

      I thought about this further and will endeavour to come up with the maximal score: my point is that achieving the max. is quite straight forward. A clause with Object/Verb/Subject/Place/Time + Adverb and adjective, since particles are - to my knowledge - typically one or two syllables. Watch this space, this is all I am saying.

      Delete
    4. DeclanJune 15, 2018 at 5:21 AM

      Good luck. See you in the Guinness book of Records .

      Delete
  6. ClaireJune 17, 2018 at 5:14 AM

    On Friday insanely intelligent Ekaterina constitutionalised internationalism (7! Not the max, but the winning entry)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jimmy TreanorJune 17, 2018 at 10:20 AM

    The surgeons recommend undergoing obligatory extraordinary neurobiological neovascularization. ( I'm no surgeon but I think that's an 8)

    ReplyDelete

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