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 has to start again. So, until now, non-living things still have only simple structure. After macro- molecules had got self-replication function, the number of individuals with complex structures could greatly increased. Although there were always many individuals with complex structures that continue to disintegrate, the complex structures always had survivors, so the evolu- tionary process could continue, with the structure of the organisms more and more complicated. It doesn't matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop.

The source of biological complex structure is also spontaneous mutation and natural selection. This is the same as non-living things. The only difference is that biology can continue to evolve, and non-livings always start from beginning, so the scene we see today appears. Creatures have countless magical functions, for example, the function of maintaining one's temperature, the immune function, run, fly, and even think and innovate. Structure determines function. With ever-complicated structures, all amazing functions can be naturally produced. So the root cause of biological evolution is self-replication, not mutation and natural selection. Although mutation and natural selection are indispensable, they are not scarce resources. Non-living structures are destroyed if they are not adapted to the environment. This is the same as living things. The only difference between non-living and living things is replication.

Definition: The living material is a kind of complex material system with relatively stable special structure. This special structure makes it have the function of maintaining its own structure survival with self-replication under natural conditions.

The secret of human civilization is also replication. Biological traits may change the world, for example, predation, excretion, nesting. Human traits, including people's thoughts may also change the world. Therefore, every new idea of human beings is a new trait.

The rate of replication of biological genes is slow, and cultural genes replicate rapidly. Susan Blackmore call culture gene as meme. A newspaper can copy millions pieces a day. If I have a new idea, writing it in a newspaper and distributing it to millions of people, my thoughts may be copied into the ideas of millions of people. If I speak out my thoughts making videos, and copying them to televisions of millions of households by television signal, it can also become the idea of millions of people. In this way, everyone has added a new trait, which means adding a new ability to change the world. Because of the rapid rate of replication of cultural genes, human civilization has evolved at a much faster rate than biology. The copying of ancient cultures is slow, and the copying of books only by transcribing. Later, the technology of printing gradually developed. In modern society, with cameras and networks, the copying speed of cultural genes soars, and human civilization has reached the level of knowledge explosion.

Copying is an imitation. For example, the teacher taught us to learn bodybuilding exercise. We imitate the teacher's actions. In the classroom, teacher writes on the blackboard, we copied it in our paper. This is also imitation. All education and publicity processes are imitation.

Animals can also create civilizations. We can imagine that if a monkey knows how to use fire, and knows how to keep the fire. So it can protect itself with fire and eat cooked food. But after the monkey died, this skill was lost. This skill is acquired character and cannot be inherited by biological genes. Even if the monkeys around can learn, if this group of monkeys extincts in a disaster, then this ability will be lost. The fundamental difference between humans and animals is that human acquired characters can be inherited.

Various skills and techniques of human beings are often lost, but if written on paper, they can be saved and passed to descendants. Therefore, animals cannot create civiliza- tions. Only humans can create civilizations. It doesn't matter how slowly you go as long as you don't stop. Animal's acquired characters are always lost, and human acquired characters can be inherited stably. If the libraries are destroyed, civilization will be degraded for thousand years.

Animals can also imitate simple things, but animals haven't invented words. The imitation by words is most efficient. Therefore, the invention of words is a sign of human civilization. All kinds of human thoughts and all science and technology are acquired characters. They cannot be inherited through biological genes but can be inherited through cultural genes. Various symbols such as word, audio and video are cultural genes, and the cultural genes make the acquired characters capable to be inherited.

Definition: Human being is a kind of animal that survive mainly on acquired characters such as science, technology, art and culture, which can be inherited.

Science must be inherited first, and then it can develop. If you do not study, when you want to invent, you can only step on other people's footprints. Learning is imitation, which is the reproduction of ideas. The essential difference between human and animal is that human can learn. This is called learning to be human.

There are many kinds of social theories, which always debate. When physics can grasp the whole universe, there is no social theory that can grasp the whole society. There is no social theory that proposes a decent model for the whole society. The proposal of cultural gene has finally made it possible for people to realize this expectation because it is comprehensive and simple. Being simple is the basic principle of theory. Biological genes are very simple compared to biological traits. Cultural genes should also be very simple compared to social reality. At the same time, cultural genes can fully reflect social life and human civilization, just as biological genes can fully reflect biological traits and evolution.

Another value of cultural genes is that social theory can be more inspired by biology. Compared with social theory, the level of development of social theory is still very low. Biology has achieved rich results and formed a set of methods and paradigms. The discovery of biological gene brought about a revolution. It has freed people from  complex traits of plant and animal. In a genetic project, people can use some simple methods to create miracles. In the past, sociologists can only envy these successes. Now the similarities between cultural genes and biological genes make infinite imagination. People can promote the development of social sciences, even to revolution.

Baudrillard did not compare symbols with biological genes, but his theory of simulacrum belongs to the theory of cultural gene. Karl Popper made this comparison, but he did not directly point out the relationship between the third world and biological genes. Susan Blackmore's meme theory has raised the 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 symbols in social development, but they did not learn from each other. Because their understanding of the role of symbols and copying is not thorough enough, they cannot be consistent and research separately.

Popper's Theory of the Third World

The theory of the third world is a major research resulted in Popper's evolutionary epistemology. This theory puts forward some important ideas of the general evolutionary theory. Popper believes that the cultural background is relatively free from the creators. There is a third world, “the world of the objective contents of the thought, especially the scientific and poetic thought and of works of art”. The first world is “the world of physical objects or of physical states”, the second world is “the world of states of consciousness or of mental states, or perhaps of behavioural dispositions to act.”^[1]

Popper found the independence of knowledge expressed in words, which is different from other substances and  consciousness, and deserves special status. The meaning of Popper's “objective content of ideas” is not accurate. If it refers to the system of word and symbols, then some of his theory made sense.

Popper believes that the development of knowledge is very similar to the evolution of animals and plants. ^[2] We should understand that the objective content of the idea (the order of symbols in the textual which is constantly innovating) is essentially the product of the process of material getting complex and orderly after human beings originated, that is, part of the general evolutionary product.  Although Popper did not use the term “general evolution”, nor did he make it clear, he actually pointed out that the development of knowledge was general evolution and pointed out the specific way of general evolution. That is P1-TT-EE-P2, in which P1 and P2 represent problems, TT (the tentative theory) is the imaginative conjectural solution which we first reach, and EE (error-elimination) is consists of a severe critical examination of our conjecture.^[3]

The genetic material of an organism is first tran- scribed into messenger RNA, and then translated into the structure of protein, which forms tissues, organs, and creatures. In the process of human learning, cultural genes, ie. concepts and theories as written symbols, must also be transcribed to consciousness in the human mind, and then translated to production, that is, under the control of consciousness, to establish social organizations and change the world. Although Popper did not use the term “cultural gene”, he pointed out the cultural functions of the third world: if the “library and our ability to learn from it still existed, our world would run again after heavy losses.” If “all libraries are destroyed ... there will be no re-emergency of our civilization for many millennia.”^[4]

Popper emphasized that the problems of the third world are more important than the problems of the second world.^[5] We should regard it as that cultural genes, cultural reproductions, and mutations are more important than the process of translating cultural genes into consciousness and consciousness translation into generalized phenotypes (transformation of the world). The existence of each individual organism is only a means of narrow evolution of the gene. The existence of each person's behavior and psychology is only the means of the general evolution of cultural genes. Biological genes are the main body of biological evolution, phenotypes are not the main body; cultural genes are the main body of human civilization evolution, human and human consciousness is not the main body. This is similar to Blackmore's opinion, but Popper is not clear enough, far inferior to Blakemore in depth and breadth.

Baudrillard's Theory of Simulacrum

Baudrillard put forward the theory of the three orders of simulacra in the book Symbollic Exchange and Death. He believes that the three orders of the simulacra match the mutations of the law of value and have been progressed since the Renaissance. 1)The counterfeit is the dominant mode of reproduction of artworks during Classical period from the the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution, with only fake product being added in addition to the original; 2)Production is the dominant mode of the industrial age, for example, famous paintings can be printed and reproduce, and the invisible hand of the market law plays a regulatory role; 3)Simulation by computer is the dominant mode in the current era under the control of code. It follows the “law of structural value.”^[6]

Baudrillard's simulacrum is the reproduction of symbols. Calligraphy, poetry, music and film and televi- sion are symbols. However, he did not notice that not only works of art can be copied, but scientific works, daily necessities, political and economic documents, etc. can be copied. Therefore, the word “simulacrum” is not appro- priate, “copy” should be used instead. All reproductions are imitations, including the imitation of the classical period, the reproduce of the industrial age and simulation by computer. All replication is the copy of structure, not only the third stage has structural problems. It is not only the second stage that follows the law of value, the first and third stages also follow the law of value. They do not follow a special law of structural value. Now that the cost of copying code is low, the quantity is large.

In Baudrillard's field of vision, the third stage of simulacrum is mainly used to describe a kind of image culture provided to the public in contemporary society, such as television images. Although this kind of “image can reflect the basic reality” first, it will “mask and distort the basic reality” and then “cover up the absence of basic reality” and finally proceed to the field of “purely its own imagination”, associated with no real happening. What simulacrum creates is an artificial reality or a second nature.^[7]

Baudrillard has obviously exaggerated the role of symbols, forgetting the decisive effect of material objectivity on consciousness, and the simulacrum theory has become an absurd theory. The second nature created by simulacrum is just Popper's third world. But Baudrillard only notice that contemporary society has a second nature. In fact, ancient times also had a second nature. Many ancient people were addicted to the imagination world and could not extricate themselves, such as chess fans, authors and readers of famous novels. Although today's imagery is extremely developed, it will never completely separate from the real world. The most crazy video game fans will also have to eat, sleep, marry and make money. If someone can really survive in the unreal world, then that world must not be illusory.

The Charm and Flaw of Meme Theory

Blakemore's Meme theory stresses that imitation is the key to biological evolution and cultural evolution, human learning is an imitation. Blackmoore refers to people as “the meme machine.” Cultural reproduction is based on imitation, unlike narrow reproduction, which is based on self-replication. This notion is not only correct, but imitation is more important than Aigen's hypercirculation, and it is more definitive than Eric Jantsch's autocatalysis. Imitation is a kind of replication, and replication is the main way for a complex system to maintain non-equilibrium.

The meme theory is a generalized evolutionary theory, the general evolution is a worldview, the worldview is the basis of meta-ethics, meta-ethics is the basis of episte- mology, and epistemology is the basis of ontology. But neither Blackmore nor her teacher, Richard Dawkins, saw the fundamental position of meme theory on philosophy.

The biggest flaw in the meme theory is that it does not recognize the essence of the meme. Blackmore's definition of meme is “instructions for carrying out behaviour, stored in brains (or other objects) and passed on by imitation.”^[8] This definition is wrong. The meme is not just a behavioral order, but also a variety of ideas and emotional expressions. Dawkins said, “memes presumably exist in brains, and we have even less chance of seeing one.”^[9] They explicitly refused to regard the meme as word and symbol. Dawkins said, “I would not wish to call them digital.”^[10] This rejection is not justified.

There are countless skilled craftsmen, famous doctors, celebrity chefs, famous generals, heroes, and breeding experts in ancient times. However, most of them only worked without recording their behavior and thoughts in words, so they completely disappeared after death. The civilization they created cannot have any impact on later generations and cannot be accumulated in the total achievements of human civilization. Dawkins and Blackmore clearly realize that memes are copied with insufficient high fidelity to be compared with gene.^[11] However, they did not realize that the biggest difference between simple imitation and imitation by symbol is fidelity. And this distinction is not a little difference, and when the things being imitated become more complex, this difference becomes tremendous. Therefore, rejecting the symbol is equivalent to proclaiming the death sentence to the meme theory. Before the creation of the text, humans could only rely on simple imitations and simple symbols to pass on the culture. The fidelity is very low, so the evolution of human civilization is slow.The generation of words is a milestone in the evolution of human civilization, because the reproduction of texts has a high degree of fidelity and can contain a wealth of information. Because the purpose of meme theory is to explain human civilization, so we cannot ignore this milestone.

Blackmore believes that genes are the real life and they use the biological phenotype as a tool to spread themselves.^[12] This view has been recognized by many people. Similarly, we can also say that symbols such as words are real lives. They use people as tools to spread themselves.  In fact, these two views are very biased. The relationship between genes and phenotypes is complementary, mutually dependent and beneficial. It can be compared to walking on two legs. A more appropriate metaphor is yin and yang of Taiji. So my theory is called “Taiji evolutionism”.

Why are two complex and ordered systems produced simultaneously in the evolution of biology and human society? Because these two systems have their own fatal flaws, they must rely on each other. The disadvantage of organisms and human society is that it is not easy to copy. It is not possible to directly duplicate an organism with the original organism as the mother board. Even though it is possible it may be slow and error-prone. Only genetic material can be reliably reproduced in large numbers and then create new biological entities using genetic material as the mother board. Similarly, civilizations such as human consciousness, tools, productions, and social organiza- tions cannot be directly copied in large number. Only symbols such as words and videos can be reproduced in large number, and then these symbols can be used as the mother board to generate consciousness and produce new civilization achievements. The treasury of knowledge as a system is a continuation for thousand years. It has accumulated continuously and will rarely be reinvented. People are constantly changing generation by generation. But both biology gene and cultural gene have a drawback: the lack of function. The book can't be eaten, and DNA can't hunt. Although cultural genes are complex and orderly systems, they are only symbol systems and do not have the functions that people need.

Reference

1. Popper,K.R.(1972) Objective Knowledge - an Evolutionary Approach. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Pr., p.106.

2. (ibid.) 112.

3. (ibid.) 164.

4. (ibid.) 108.

5. (ibid.) 112.

6. Christoph Horrocks.(2005). Baudrillard and the Millennium Year. Wang Wenhua Translated. Peking University Press, p.5-6. (In Chinese)

7. (ibid) 7.

8. Susan Blackmore.(1999). The Meme Machine. Oxford University Press, p.43.

9. (ibid.) Foreword 12.

10. (ibid.) Foreword 11.

11. (ibid.) Foreword 12.

12. (ibid.) 242.