Abstract: Non-living things cannot continue to evolve. Living things can continue to evolve after they had ability to replicate. So the answer to the puzzle of life is replication. The answer to the puzzle of human civilization is also replication. Cultural genes can fully reflect social life and human civilization, just as biological genes can fully reflect biological traits and evolution. Cultural genes allow sociologists to imitate biological methods and paradigms. Baudrillard did not compare symbols with biological genes, but his theory belongs to the theory of cultural genes. Popper made this comparison, but he did not directly point out the relationship between the third world and biological genes. Blackmore's meme theory has raised the similar relationship between cultural genes and biological genes to unprecedented heights, but there are also obvious flaws. Popper, Baudrillard, and Blackmore all discovered the role of cultural genes in social development, but they did not learn from each other. Popper thinks that the cultural background can be relatively separated from the creator. There is a third world, the “world of the objective content of the mind”, which is different from other materials and consciousness. It deserves a special status. Baudrillard's simulacrum is the reproduction of symbols. Calligraphy, picture, poetry, music, film and television are symbols. Not only can artworks be copied, but scientific works, daily necessities, and political and economic documents can be copied. Therefore, the word simulacrum is not appropriate, copying should be used instead. Blakemore emphasized that imitation is the key to biological evolution and cultural evolution. This is more important than Eigen's hyper-circulation, and it's also more clear than Eric Jantsch's autocatalysis.

Keywords: cultural philosophy; cultural gene; Popper; Baudrillard; Blackmore

Submission: World Philosophy Conference Group 61. Philosophy of culture

This paper deals with the issue of cultural genes, which are the essential differences between humans and animals. The issue of cultural genes belongs to the historical view of general evolution, which belongs to the theory of complex systems. Complex system theory is the foundation of philosophy.

Definition of Life and Human

Cultural gene is similar with biological gene, which carries information of creatures. But the essential character of gene is not information. Creatures can evolve to form an amazing world. The key is breeding. In China, there is a story called the race between tortoise and rabbit. When the rabbit sees the tortoise crawling slowly, he sleeps half way. When he wakes up, the tortoise has reached the end. It doesn't matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop. This is the answer to the mystery of life.

Non-living things can also evolve continuously.From small molecules to macromolecules, from simple structures to complex structures, any material will spontaneously mutate. However, the number of complex structure bodies generated by spontaneous mutation is very small, and complex structures are easily disintegrated. Once the complex substances are all disintegrated, the process of evolution