Did you know that you spend much of your life copying and transmitting entities called memes?

A meme (pronounced meem) is an idea, behavior, style or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture. Whenever you shake hands, sing Happy Birthday or cast your vote in an election, you are giving life to memes. So far, no debate, but controversy has erupted over the proposal, presented here by psychologist Susan Blackmore, that humans uncanny ability to imitate, and thus to transmit memes, is what sets us apart from other species. Memes, she argues, have been (and are) a powerful force shaping our culturaland biologicalevolution. To convey the debate, we have included three short counterpoints, written by behavioral ecologist Lee Alan Dugatkin, evolutionary anthropologist Robert Boyd and population biologist Peter J. Richerson, and psychologist Henry Plotkin. Enjoy this smorgasbord of competing memes. Sabas que pasas mucha parte de tu vida copiando y transmitiendo objetos llamados memes? Un meme es una idea, un comportamiento, un estilo o costumbre que se expande de persona a persona dentro de una cultura . Cada vez que le das la mano a alguien, cantas Feliz Cumpleaos o votas en una eleccin, ests dando vida a los memes. Hasta el momento ningn debate, sino controversia ha surgidoa raz de la idea propuesta presentada por la psicloga Susan Blackmore, acerca de que la misteriosa capacidad que tienen los seres de imitar y de transmitir memes es lo que nos diferencia de otras especies. Los memes, argumenta Blackmore, han sido y siguen siendo una poderosa fuerza que modela nuestra evolucin cultural y biolgica. Para estructurar el debate, se incluyen tres contrapuntos , escritos por el ecologista conductivista Lee Alan Dugatkin, el antroplogo evolucionista Robert Boyd y el bilogo poblacional Peter J. Richerson y el psiclogo Henry Plotkin. Disfruta de este potpurr de memes. Surplus=exceso Smorgasbord=potpourri