I'm not really happy with this post, even though the subject (memes and metaphors) is definitely of interest in today's landscape. I don't think Susan Blackmore is the right person to cite on memes, certainly not if she's saying things like "what makes us different from other animals is our ability to imitate." Really? This statement is on the face of it flat out false (counter-example: parrots). I don't think Dron and Anderson are the appropriate people to cite on groups and networks, not only because I wrote about it first, but because there's earlier and even better work extant and explained. I can also understand the reference to one's own earlier work, but would hesitate to self-reference an introduction to the well-known concepts of functionalism and connectionism. Yes, I think metaphors are helpful. No, I don't think we need 'a new metaphor' (though if we did, the ideas of stewardship and ecosystem spring to mind) because different metaphors should be applied to different tasks. And we have a well-stocked history of metaphors to aid us; we don't need to discover them anew. I don't think you can form a contemporary understanding of meme and metaphor by studying the literature; you need to get about and mucky-muck with LOLcats.
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