Dangerous memes | Dan Dennett

Prevodilac: Tijana Mihajlović Lektor: Mile Živković

How many Creationists do we have in the room?

Koliko kreacionista imamo u prostoriji?

Probably none. I think we're all Darwinians.

Verovatno nijednog. Mislim da smo svi darvinovci.

And yet many Darwinians are anxious, a little uneasy --

Ipak, mnogi darvinovci su zabrinuti, pomalo uznemireni;

would like to see some limits on just how far the Darwinism goes.

voleli bi da vide granice do kojih darvinizam ide.

It's all right.

To je u redu.

You know spiderwebs? Sure, they are products of evolution.

Znate za paukove mreže? Naravno, one su proizvod evolucije.

The World Wide Web? Not so sure.

Za svetsku mrežu nisam baš siguran.

Beaver dams, yes. Hoover Dam, no.

Dabrove brane? Da. Huverovu branu? Ne.

What do they think it is that prevents the products of human ingenuity

Šta misle da sprečava produkte ljudske genijalnosti

from being themselves, fruits of the tree of life,

da budu ono što jesu - voće sa drveta života -

and hence, in some sense, obeying evolutionary rules?

i da se stoga, u nekom smislu, povinuju evolutivnim zakonima?

And yet people are interestingly resistant

Ipak, ljudi su, interesantno, otporni na ideju

to the idea of applying evolutionary thinking to thinking -- to our thinking.

o primeni evolutivnog razmišljanja na razmišljanje - naše razmišljanje.

And so I'm going to talk a little bit about that,

Tako, danas ću pričati malo o tome,

keeping in mind that we have a lot on the program here.

imajući na umu da ovde imamo dosta toga na programu.

So you're out in the woods, or you're out in the pasture,

Dakle, u šumi ste ili na pašnjaku

and you see this ant crawling up this blade of grass.

i vidite mrava koji puže uz vlat trave.

It climbs up to the top, and it falls,

Penje se do vrha i pada,

and it climbs, and it falls, and it climbs --

penje se i pada, penje se,

trying to stay at the very top of the blade of grass.

pokušavajući da ostane na vrhu travke.

What is this ant doing? What is this in aid of?

Šta ovaj mrav radi? Zarad čega on to radi?

What goals is this ant trying to achieve by climbing this blade of grass?

Koje ciljeve ovaj mrav pokušava da dostigne penjući se na ovu vlat trave?

What's in it for the ant?

Šta on ima od toga?

And the answer is: nothing. There's nothing in it for the ant.

Odgovor je - ništa. On nema ništa od toga.

Well then, why is it doing this?

Pa, onda, zašto on to radi?

Is it just a fluke?

Da li je to metilj/slučajno?

Yeah, it's just a fluke. It's a lancet fluke.

Da, to je samo metilj. Mali metilj.

It's a little brain worm.

To je majušni moždani crv.

It's a parasitic brain worm that has to get into the stomach of a sheep or a cow

To je parazitski crv kojii mora da uđe u stomak ovce ili krave

in order to continue its life cycle.

da bi nastavio svoj životni ciklus.

Salmon swim upstream to get to their spawning grounds,

Losos pliva uzvodno da bi stigao do mesta za mrešćenje,

and lancet flukes commandeer a passing ant,

a mali metilji napadnu mrava,

crawl into its brain, and drive it up a blade of grass like an all-terrain vehicle.

dopru mu do mozga i vozaju ga po travčici kao terensko vozilo.

So there's nothing in it for the ant.

Dakle, mrav nema ništa od toga.

The ant's brain has been hijacked by a parasite that infects the brain,

Parazit koji inficira mozak kidnapovao je mozak ovog mrava,

inducing suicidal behavior.

izazvavši suicidalno ponašanje.

Pretty scary.

Prilično strašno.

Well, does anything like that happen with human beings?

Pa, da li se išta slično dešava i sa ljudskim bićima?

This is all on behalf of a cause other than one's own genetic fitness, of course.

Sve je ovo u interesu uzroka drugačijeg od nečije genetske spremnosti, naravno.

Well, it may already have occurred to you

Možda ste već primetili

da islam znači „predaja"

that Islam means "surrender," or "submission of self-interest to the will of Allah."

ili „potčinjavanje sopstvenog interesa volji Alaha".

Well, it's ideas -- not worms -- that hijack our brains.

Ideje, a ne crvi, kidnapuju naš mozak.

Now, am I saying that a sizable minority of the world's population

Da li kažem da su mozgove znatne manjine svetske populacije

has had their brain hijacked by parasitic ideas?

kidnapovale parazitske ideje?

No, it's worse than that.

Ne, još je gore od toga.

Most people have.

Znatna većina je u pitanju.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

There are a lot of ideas to die for.

Ima mnogo ideja za koje se umire.

Freedom, if you're from New Hampshire.

Sloboda, ako ste iz Nju Hempšira.

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

Justice. Truth. Communism.

Pravda. Istina. Komunizam.

Many people have laid down their lives for communism,

Mnogo ljudi je dalo svoje živote za komunizam,

and many have laid down their lives for capitalism.

a mnogo ih je dalo i za kapitalizam.

And many for Catholicism. And many for Islam.

Mnogi su dali živote za katolicizam. Mnogi za islam.

These are just a few of the ideas that are to die for.

Ovo su samo neke od ideja za koje se umiralo.

They're infectious.

One su zarazne.

Yesterday, Amory Lovins spoke about "infectious repititis."

Juče je Emori Lovins govorio o „zaraznom repititisu".

It was a term of abuse, in effect.

To je pogrdni termin koji se koristi.

This is unthinking engineering.

To je nepromišljena primena.

Well, most of the cultural spread that goes on

Veliki deo kulturološkog napretka koji se nastavlja

is not brilliant, new, out-of-the-box thinking.

nije sjajno, novo, nekonvencionalno razmišljanje.

It's "infectious repetitis,"

To je „zarazni repititis"

and we might as well try to have a theory of what's going on when that happens

i možemo čak pokušati da razradimo teoriju o tome

šta će se desiti kada se to dogodi

so that we can understand the conditions of infection.

kako bismo mogli da razumemo uslove u kojima se zaraza javlja.

Hosts work hard to spread these ideas to others.

Domaćini naporno rade na širenju ovih ideja.

I myself am a philosopher, and one of our occupational hazards

Ja sam filozof i jedna od potencijalnih opasnosti u našoj profesiji je

is that people ask us what the meaning of life is.

da nas ljudi pitaju koji je smisao života.

And you have to have a bumper sticker,

Morate imati jednu od onih nalepnica za auto, znate.

you know. You have to have a statement.

Morate imati izjavu.

So, this is mine.

Pa, ovo je moja.

The secret of happiness is: Find something more important than you are

Tajna sreće je - nađite nešto što je važnije od vas samih

and dedicate your life to it.

i posvetite mu svoj život.

Most of us -- now that the "Me Decade" is well in the past --

Većina nas - sada kada je „'ja-sam-centar' decenija" iza nas -

now we actually do this.

radi upravo to.

One set of ideas or another

Ova ili ona grupa ideja je

have simply replaced our biological imperatives in our own lives.

jednostavno zamenila biološke imperative u našim životima.

This is what our summum bonum is.

Ovo je naš „summum bonum",

It's not maximizing the number of grandchildren we have.

a ne uvećavanje broja unučića koje imamo.

Now, this is a profound biological effect.

To je značajna biološka posledica.

It's the subordination of genetic interest to other interests.

To je podređivanje genetskog uticaja ostalim uticajima

And no other species does anything at all like it.

i nijedna druga vrsta ne radi ništa slično tome.

Well, how are we going to think about this?

Pa, kako ćemo da razmišljamo o ovome?

It is, on the one hand, a biological effect, and a very large one.

S jedne strane, to je biološki efekat, i to veoma snažan.

Unmistakable.

Nepogrešiv.

Now, what theories do we want to use to look at this?

Koje teorije želimo da koristimo da bismo ovo objasnili?

Well, many theories. But how could something tie them together?

Pa, mnoge, ali kako ih povezati?

The idea of replicating ideas;

Ideja o umnožavanju ideja;

ideas that replicate by passing from brain to brain.

ideje koje se umnožavaju idući od mozga do mozga.

Richard Dawkins, whom you'll be hearing later in the day, invented the term "memes,"

Ričard Dokins, o kome ćete čuti nešto kasnije, uveo je termin „memi"

and put forward the first really clear and vivid version of this idea

i izneo prvu jasnu i živopisnu verziju te ideje

in his book "The Selfish Gene."

u svojoj knjizi „Sebični gen".

Now here am I talking about his idea.

Evo mene, pričam o njegovoj ideji,

Well, you see, it's not his. Yes -- he started it.

ali, vidite, ta ideja nije njegova. Da - on ju je započeo,

But it's everybody's idea now.

ali to je sada svačija ideja.

And he's not responsible for what I say about memes.

On nije odgovoran za ono što ja kažem o memima.

I'm responsible for what I say about memes.

Ja sam odgovoran za ono što kažem o memima.

Actually, I think we're all responsible

U stvari, mislim da smo svi odgovorni

for not just the intended effects of our ideas,

ne samo za namerne posledice svojih ideja,

but for their likely misuses.

već i za njihovu moguću zloupotrebu.

So it is important, I think, to Richard, and to me,

Tako je važno, mislim, Ričardu i meni,

that these ideas not be abused and misused.

da te ideje ne budu zloupotrebljene,

They're very easy to misuse. That's why they're dangerous.

a vrlo ih je lako zloupotrebiti. Zato su opasne.

And it's just about a full-time job

Pravi je posao sa punim radnim vremenom

trying to prevent people who are scared of these ideas

pokušavati da sprečite ljude koji se plaše tih ideja

from caricaturing them and then running off to one dire purpose or another.

da ih karikiraju, a onda da ih koriste u loše svrhe.

So we have to keep plugging away,

Zato moramo da istrajemo,

trying to correct the misapprehensions

pokušavajući da ispravimo zablude

so that only the benign and useful variants of our ideas continue to spread.

tako da samo dobroćudne i korisne varijante naših ideja

nastave da se šire.

But it is a problem.

To je problem, međutim.

We don't have much time, and I'm going to go over just a little bit of this and cut out,

Nemamo mnogo vremena pa ću još samo kratko o ovome

because there's a lot of other things that are going to be said.

zato što ima još mnogo stvari koje treba reći.

So let me just point out: memes are like viruses.

Dozvolite samo da zaključim: memi su kao virusi.

That's what Richard said, back in '93.

To je Ričard rekao '93. godine.

And you might think, "Well, how can that be?

Možda ćete pomisliti: „Kako je to moguće?

I mean, a virus is -- you know, it's stuff! What's a meme made of?"

Virus je, znate, stvar! Od čega se sastoji mem?"

Yesterday, Negroponte was talking about viral telecommunications

Negroponte je juče pričao o viralnim telekomunikacijama

ali - šta je virus?

but -- what's a virus?

A virus is a string of nucleic acid with attitude.

Virus je niz nukleinske kiseline sa stavom,

(Laughter)

(Smeh)

That is, there is something about it

to jest, ima nečega u vezi sa tim

that tends to make it replicate better than the competition does.

što teži da ga umnoži bolje nego što to radi konkurencija,

And that's what a meme is. It's an information packet with attitude.

a to je i mem - paket informacija sa stavom.

What's a meme made of? What are bits made of, Mom?

Od čega se mem sastoji? Od čega se bitovi sastoje, mama?

Not silicon.

Nije silikon.

They're made of information, and can be carried in any physical medium.

Sastoje se od informacija i mogu biti sadržani

u bilo kom fizičkom medijumu.

What's a word made of?

Od čega se reč sastoji?

Sometimes when people say, "Do memes exist?"

Nekada, kad ljudi kažu: „Da li memi postoje?"

I say, "Well, do words exist? Are they in your ontology?"

kažem: „Pa, da li reči postoje? Da li su one u vašoj ontologiji?"

If they are, words are memes that can be pronounced.

Ako jesu, reči su memi koji se mogu izgovoriti.

Then there's all the other memes that can't be pronounced.

Postoje i mnogi drugi memi koji se ne mogu izgovoriti.

There are different species of memes.

Onu su drugačija vrsta mema.

Remember the Shakers? Gift to be simple?

Sećate li se sekte šejkera? Dar za jednostavnost?

Simple, beautiful furniture?

Jednostavan, lep nameštaj?

And, of course, they're basically extinct now.

Naravno, sada su praktično nepostojeći,

And one of the reasons is that among the creed of Shaker-dom

a jedan od razloga je to što je za veru šejkera bitno

is that one should be celibate.

da pripadnici budu u celibatu.

Not just the priests. Everybody.

Ne samo sveštenici. Svi.

Well, it's not so surprising that they've gone extinct. (Laughter)

Dakle, i nije tako čudno što su nestali, (Smeh)

But in fact that's not why they went extinct.

ali zapravo nisu zbog toga iščezli.

They survived as long as they did

Oni su preživljavali koliko jesu

u vreme kada nisu postojale društvene bezbednosne mreže.

at a time when the social safety nets weren't there.

And there were lots of widows and orphans,

Bilo je mnogo udovica i siročadi,

people like that, who needed a foster home.

takvih ljudi, kojima je trebao hraniteljski dom.

And so they had a ready supply of converts.

Tako su imali spremnu zalihu preobraćenih

And they could keep it going.

i mogli su da nastave da postoje.

And, in principle, it could've gone on forever,

U principu, to je moglo da potraje večno,

with perfect celibacy on the part of the hosts.

uz savršeni celibat domaćina.

The idea being passed on through proselytizing,

Ideja se prenosila kroz propovedi

instead of through the gene line.

umesto kroz genetsku liniju.

Dakle, ideje mogu da žive uprkos činjenici

So the ideas can live on in spite of the fact

da se ne prenose genetski.

that they're not being passed on genetically.

Mem može da se razvija uprkos njenom negativnom uticaju

A meme can flourish in spite of having a negative impact on genetic fitness.

na genetsku sposobnost.

Na kraju krajeva, mem vere šejkera je u biti bio sterilišući parazit.

After all, the meme for Shaker-dom was essentially a sterilizing parasite.

There are other parasites that do this -- which render the host sterile.

Postoje i drugi paraziti koji rade ovo, koji čine domaćina sterilnim.

It's part of their plan.

To je deo njihovog plana.

They don't have to have minds to have a plan.

Ne moraju da imaju umove da bi imali plan.

I'm just going to draw your attention to just one

Skrenuću vam pažnju na samo jednu

of the many implications of the memetic perspective, which I recommend.

od mnogih posledica memske perspektive koju preporučujem.

I've not time to go into more of it.

Nema vremena da dublje zalazim u to.

In Jared Diamond's wonderful book, "Guns, Germs and Steel,"

U sjajnoj knjizi Džereda Dajmonda, „Oružje, klice i čelik",

he talks about how it was germs, more than guns and steel,

on priča o tome kako su klice, više nego oružje i čelik,

that conquered the new hemisphere -- the Western hemisphere --

pokorile novu hemisferu, zapadnu hemisferu,

that conquered the rest of the world.

koje su pokorile ostatak sveta.

When European explorers and travelers spread out,

Kada su se evropski istraživači i putnici raširili,

they brought with them the germs

poneli su sa sobom klice

that they had become essentially immune to,

na koje su u suštini postali imuni,

that they had learned how to tolerate over

koje su naučili da tolerišu

tokom stotina i stotina, hiljada godina

hundreds and hundreds of years, thousands of years,

življenja sa pripitomljenim životinjama koje su bile izvori ovih patogena,

of living with domesticated animals who were the sources of those pathogens.

And they just wiped out -- these pathogens just wiped out the native people,

a oni su samo izbrisali - ovi patogeni su samo izbrisali starosedeoce

who had no immunity to them at all.

koji nisu bili imuni na njih,

And we're doing it again.

a mi to radimo opet.

We're doing it this time with toxic ideas.

Ovoga puta to radimo sa toksičnim idejama.

Yesterday, a number of people -- Nicholas Negroponte and others --

Juče je grupa ljudi - Nikolas Negroponte i drugi -

spoke about all the wonderful things

pričala o sjajnim stvarima

that are happening when our ideas get spread out,

koje se dešavaju kada se ideje rašire,

zahvaljujući celokupnoj novoj tehnologiji širom sveta

thanks to all the new technology all over the world.

And I agree. It is largely wonderful. Largely wonderful.

i ja se slažem - to je većinom sjajno,

But among all those ideas that inevitably flow out into the whole world

ali, među ovim idejama koje neizbežno pristižu u celi svet

thanks to our technology, are a lot of toxic ideas.

zahvaljujući našoj tehnologiji, mnogo je toksičnih ideja.

Now, this has been realized for some time.

Ovo je poznato već neko vreme.

Sajid Kutb je jedan od osnivača fanatičnog islama,

Sayyid Qutb is one of the founding fathers of fanatical Islam,

one of the ideologues that inspired Osama bin Laden.

jedan od ideologa koji su inspirisali Osamu bin Ladena.

"One has only to glance at its press films, fashion shows, beauty contests,

„Samo se mora baciti pogled na štampu, filmove,

modne emisije, izbore za mis, plesne sale,

ballrooms, wine bars and broadcasting stations." Memes.

vinske restorane i radio-stanice." Memi.

These memes are spreading around the world

Ovi memi se šire svetom

and they are wiping out whole cultures.

i brišu čitave kulture.

They are wiping out languages.

Brišu jezike.

They are wiping out traditions and practices.

Brišu tradicije i običaje,

And it's not our fault, anymore than it's our fault when our germs lay waste

a to nije naša greška ništa više nego kada naše klice unište

to people that haven't developed the immunity.

ljude koji nisu razvili imunitet.

We have an immunity to all of the junk that lies around the edges of our culture.

Imamo imunitet na svo đubre koje leži na marginama naše kulture.

We're a free society, so we let pornography and all these things -- we shrug them off.

Mi smo slobodno društvo, pa puštamo pornografiju i sve ove stvari.

Odbacujemo ih.

Oni su kao blaga prehlada.

They're like a mild cold.

They're not a big deal for us.

Nisu velika stvar za nas,

But we should recognize that for many people in the world,

ali treba da shvatimo da su za mnoge ljude na svetu

they are a big deal.

velika stvar

i treba da smo oprezni oko ovoga.

And we should be very alert to this.

Dok širimo svoje obrazovanje i tehnologiju,

As we spread our education and our technology,

one of the things that we are doing is we're the vectors of memes

jedna od stvari koje radimo je da smo vektori mema

that are correctly viewed by the hosts of many other memes

koje mnogi domaćini mnogih drugih mema ispravno doživljavaju

as a dire threat to their favorite memes --

kao žestoku pretnju njihovim omiljenim memima -

the memes that they are prepared to die for.

memima za koje su spremni da daju život.

Well now, how are we going to tell the good memes from the bad memes?

Pa, kako ćemo razlikovati dobre od loših mema?

That is not the job of the science of memetics.

To nije posao memetike kao nauke.

Memetika je moralno neutralna, a i treba da bude.

Memetics is morally neutral. And so it should be.

This is not the place for hate and anger.

To nije mesto za mržnju i bes.

If you've had a friend who's died of AIDS, then you hate HIV.

Ako ste imali prijatelja koji je umro od AIDS-a,

onda mrzite HIV virus,

But the way to deal with that is to do science,

ali način da se sa tim nosite je kroz nauku

and understand how it spreads and why in a morally neutral perspective.

i da razumete kako se širi i zašto sa moralno neutralne tačke gledišta.

Get the facts.

Sakupite činjenice.

Work out the implications.

Razradite posledice.

There's plenty of room for moral passion once we've got the facts

Ima dovoljno mesta za moralnu ostrašćenost

kada sakupimo činjenice

and can figure out the best thing to do.

i shvatimo najbolji način da se nosimo sa tim.

And, as with germs, the trick is not to try to annihilate them.

Što se klica tiče, trik nije u pokušaju da se unište.

You will never annihilate the germs.

Nikada ih nećete uništiti.

What you can do, however, is foster public health measures and the like

Možete, međutim, da podstičete zdravstvene mere i slične stvari

that will encourage the evolution of avirulence.

koje će ohrabriti razvoj protiv zaraze,

That will encourage the spread of relatively benign mutations

koje će ohrabriti širenje relativno benignih mutacija

of the most toxic varieties.

najotrovnijih vrsta.

That's all the time I have,

To je celokupno vreme koje imam,

so thank you very much for your attention.

pa vam se zahvaljujem na pažnji.