Susan Jane Blackmore (born July 29, 1951) is a British freelance writer, lecturer, and broadcaster, perhaps best known for her book The Meme Machine. July 29 is the 210th day (211th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 155 days remaining. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... A freelancer or (freelance worker) is a self-employed person working in a profession or trade in which full-time employment by a single employer is also common. ... Lecturer is the name given to university teachers in most of the English-speaking world (but not at most universities in the U.S. or Canada) who do not hold a professorship. ... Note: broadcasting is also the old term for hand sowing. ...

Career

In 1973, Susan Blackmore graduated from St. Hilda's College, University of Oxford, with a BA (Hons) in psychology and physiology. She went on to do a postgraduate degree in environmental psychology at the University of Surrey, achieving an MSc in 1974. In 1980, she got her Ph.D. in parapsychology from the same university, her thesis being entitled "Extrasensory Perception as a Cognitive Process". 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... St Hildas College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... The University of Oxford (often called Oxford University), located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Psychology (Gk: psyche, soul or mind + logos, speech) is an academic and applied field involving the study of the human mind, brain, and behavior. ... Physiology (in Greek physis = nature and logos = word) is the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of living organisms. ... Environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary field focused on the interplay between humans and their surroundings. ... The University of Surrey (UniS) received its charter on September 9, 1966, and was at that time situated near Battersea Park in south-west London. ... 1974 (MCMLXXIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1974 calendar). ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Parapsychology is the study of the evidence of mental awareness or influence of external objects without interaction from known physical means. ...

She has done research on memes (which she wrote about in her popular book The Meme Machine), evolutionary theory,creation science, parallel universes,consciousness, and the paranormal. The term meme (IPA: ) was used in 1976 by Richard Dawkins to mean a replicator of cultural information which one mind transmits (verbally or by demonstration) to another mind. ... A speculative phylogenetic tree of all living things, based on rRNA gene data, showing the separation of the three domains, bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. ... Creation science is an umbrella term for the creationist movement to reconcile the biblical account of creation with modern science. ... ... Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... Parapsychology is the study of the evidence of mental awareness or influence of external objects without interaction from known physical means. ...

She has also appeared on television a number of times, discussing such paranormal phenomena as ghosts, extra-sensory perception, intelligent design, the multiverse, and out-of-body experiences, in what she describes as the "unenviable role of Rentaskeptic", and she has also presented a show on alien abductions. Another programme which she has presented discusses the intelligence of apes. She also acted as one of the psychologists who featured on the British version of the television show "Big Brother", speaking about the psychological state of the contestants. A manufactured image of a ghostly woman ascending a staircase A ghost is an alleged non-corporeal manifestation of a dead person (or, rarely, an animal, vehicle). ... Extra-sensory perception, or ESP, is an alleged ability to acquire information by means other than the known senses, eg. ... Intelligent design (ID) is the concept that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. ... A multiverse is a set of many universes. ... An out-of-body experience (OBE) typically involves a sensation of floating outside of ones body and, in some cases, seeing ones physical body from outside oneself (autoscopy). ... The Abduction Phenomenon is as umbrella term used to describe a number of kidnap individuals--sometimes called abductees--usually for medical testing or for sexual reproduction procedures. ... Intelligence is the mental capacity to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... Families Hylobatidae Hominidae Apes are the members of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates, including humans. ... A psychologist is a scientist who studies psychology, the systematic investigation of the human behavior and mental processes. ... Big Brother is a popular reality television format, where, over 10 weeks or so, a number of contestants (typically 10 or 12) try to avoid periodic publicly-voted evictions from a communal house and hence win a cash prize. ...

She was on the editorial board for the Journal of Memetics (an electronic journal) from 1997 to 2001, and has been a consulting editor of the Skeptical Inquirer since 1998. 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... The Skeptical Inquirer is a magazine of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) dedicated to debunking pseudoscience. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

Her latest book, Consciousness: An Introduction (2004), is a textbook that broadly covers the field of consciousness studies. In it she covers a wide variety of topics such as the mind-body problem, the hard problem of consciousness, philosophy of mind, God's existence, Cognitive neuropsychology, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, evolution, intelligent design, parapsychology, altered states of consciousness, phenomenology, Buddhism, and meditation. In sidebars of her book she has written brief profiles about various notable contributors to the field such as Daniel Dennett, John Searle, David Chalmers, Patricia Churchland, Francis Crick, Antonio Damasio, V.S. Ramachandran, John Carew Eccles, Rodney Brooks, Alan Turing, Francisco Varela, Rene Descartes, David Hume, William James, and the Buddha. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Various formulations: Why does awareness of sensory information exist at all? Why do qualia exist? Why is there a subjective component to experience? Why arent we philosophical zombies? Categories: Stub | Philosophy of mind ... A Phrenological mapping of the brain. ... Many arguments about the Existence of God have been proposed by philosophers, theologians, and other thinkers. ... == ISABEL IS COOL AND SHE LOVES COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY!!!!!!!!! == Cognitive neuropsychology is a branch of neuropsychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relates to specific psychological processes. ... Rendering of human brain based on MRI data Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ... Hondas intelligent humanoid robot AI redirects here. ... A speculative phylogenetic tree of all living things, based on rRNA gene data, showing the separation of the three domains, bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. ... Intelligent design (ID) is the concept that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. ... Parapsychology is the study of the evidence of mental awareness or influence of external objects without interaction from known physical means. ... The phrase altered state of consciousness was coined in the 1970s and describes induced changes in ones mental state, almost always temporary. ... Look up Phenomenology in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Buddhism is a religion and philosophy focusing on the teachings of the Buddha Śākyamuni (Siddhārtha Gautama). ... A large statue in Bangalore depicting Shiva meditating Meditation is the practice of focusing the mind, often formalized into a specific routine. ... Daniel Dennett Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28, 1942 in Boston) is a prominent American philosopher. ... John Rogers Searle (born July 31, 1932) is Mills Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and is noted for contributions to the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind and consciousness, on the characteristics of socially constructed versus physical realities, and on practical reason. ... David Chalmers David Chalmers (1966 -) is a leading philosopher in the area of philosophy of mind. ... Patricia Smith Churchland (born July 16, 1943) is a Canadian-American philosopher working at the University of California, San Diego since 1984. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... António C. R. Damásio (IPA: //) (b. ... Vilayanur S. Ramachandran is the director of the Center for Brain and Cognition. ... Sir John Carew Eccles (January 27, 1903 – May 2, 1997) was an Australian neurophysiologist who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synapse. ... Rodney Allen Brooks (b. ... Alan Turing is often considered the father of modern computer science. ... Francisco Varela (Santiago, September 7, 1946 – May 28, 2001 in Paris) was a Chilean biologist and philosopher, who, together with Humberto Maturana, is most well-known for introducing the concept of autopoiesis to biology. ... René Descartes René Descartes (IPA: , March 31, 1596 – February 11, 1650), also known as Cartesius, worked as a philosopher and mathematician. ... David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776)[1] was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian who is one of the most important figures of Western philosophy and of the Scottish Enlightenment. ... William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher. ... Standing Buddha, ancient region of Gandhara, northern Pakistan, 1st century CE. Gautama Buddha was a South Asian spiritual leader who lived between approximately 563 BCE and 483 BCE. Born Siddhartha Gautama in Sanskrit, a name meaning descendant of Gotama whose aims are achieved/who is efficacious in achieving aims, he...

Memetics

Susan Blackmore has made contributions to the field of memetics, with works aimed at the layman, though her writings are lacking in scientific foundation and are more cultural study than psychology or neuroscience. The term meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene and although the term has been widely used it is often misunderstood. Blackmore's book The Meme Machine is perhaps the most thorough introduction to Memetics available. In his foreword to this work, Dawkins said "Any theory deserves to be given its best shot, and this is what Susan Blackmore has done for the theory of the meme." Much more scientific treatments can be found in the works of Robert Aunger, such as The Electric Meme. Memetics is an approach to evolutionary models of information transfer based on the concept of the meme. ... Richard Dawkins Clinton Richard Dawkins DSc, FRS, FRSL (known as Richard Dawkins; born March 26, 1941) is an eminent British ethologist, evolutionary theorist, and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ...

Blackmore's treatment of memetics insists that memes are true evolutionary replicators, a second replicator that like genetics is subject to the Darwinian Algorithm and undergoes evolutionary change. Her prediction on the central role played by imitation as the cultural replicator and the neural structures that must be unique to our species necessary to support it have recently been confirm by research on mirror neurons and the differences in extent of these structures between humans and our closest ape relations. Mirror neurons are active when a primate performs an action, but also when it observes that action. ...

In her work on memetics she has emphasized the role that Darwinian mechanisms play in cultural evolution and has helped develop the field of Universal Darwinism. This article is about Darwinism as a philosophical concept; see evolution for the page on biological evolution; modern evolutionary synthesis for neo-Darwinism; and also evolution (disambiguation). ...

Personal life

In 1977, she married fellow academic Tom Troscianko, and they had two children: Emily Tamarisk Troscianko (born February 20, 1982), and Jolyon Tomasz Troscianko (born May 17, 1984). She is now the partner of the television presenter and scientist Adam Hart-Davis with whom she lives in Bristol. For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... February 20 is the 51st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 17 is the 137th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (138th in leap years). ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dr. Adam John Hart-Davis (born July 4, 1943) is a British author, photographer, and broadcaster, well-known in the UK for presenting the television series Local Heroes and What the Romans Did for Us, the latter spawning several spin-off series involving the Victorians, the Tudors, and the Stuarts. ...

Blackmore is an active practitioner of Zen, although she identifies herself as "not a Buddhist" [1]. Blackmore is an atheist and evolutionist who has criticized religion sharply, believing they are all false, yet she still believes in the supernatural and spiritual. Bodhidharma, woodcut print by Yoshitoshi, 1887. ...

Books

• The Meme Machine, Oxford University Press, reprint edition 2000, ISBN 019286212X
• Consciousness: An Inroduction, Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 0195153421 (hardcover), ISBN 019515343X (paperback)
• Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0192805851

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Susan Blackmore

• Susan Blackmore's website
• Brief description of Susan Blackmore
• Susan Blackmore's CV
• Interview with Susan Blackmore