The Secert Of Gene. Construction Of Memory. Health & Medicine Essay

Paper 1

Due dates

Rough draft (3 full pages, minimum): Thursday, September 26, 2018

Final draft (4 full pages, minimum): Thursday, October 3, 2018

**When turning in your rough draft, you must bring three hard copies for peer review and submit a copy of your paper to Canvas’s “Assignments” section.

** When turning in the final draft submit a copy to Assignments by 8 PM on the due date.  All papers not turned in by this time will be considered late.

Readings:

• Susan Blackmore, “Strange Creatures”
• Michael Specter, “Rewriting the Code of Life”

In her essay, “Strange Creatures,” Susan Blackmore likens memes to genes insofar as that they are “selfish” and that the “success” of each “replicator” is based upon its ability to be “passed on to the next generation” (4). However, while she denies that these replicators are “selfish” in the sense that genes and memes would have hopes, aspirations, or intentions “in the same way as people do” (4), the language Blackmore chooses often seems to imply that memes have agency and power over their human “vehicles” (5), such as when she states that “[i]nstead of thinking of our ideas as our own creations, and as working for us, we have to think of them as autonomous selfish memes, working only to get themselves copied.  We humans, because of our powers of imitation, have become just the physical ‘hosts’ needed for the memes to get around” (7). That said, “imitation” isn’t as clear-cut as Blackmore makes it out to be: she also counts our ability to get the “gist of the story” when talking to a friend a form of imitation (6). Accordingly, Blackmore’s claims that a meme can “take on a life of its own” (4) become even more complicated when we read Specter’s essay on Kevin Esvelt and genetic engineering.

We are prompted to consider even more questions: does Blackmore’s account of imitation become more nuanced when we think about Specter’s description of gene drive and human “hubris” (10)? Are all memes and innovations good? Moreover, to what extent do we become Blackmore’s “replicators” and nature the “vehicle” if, as Specter says, “the whole is different from the sum of the parts” (16) and Blackmore contends that there is no “little conscious ‘me’ inside our brains” (2)?

Here are some additional questions to get you thinking. Remember: do not answer these questions in a list—or any of them at all. They are prompts for thinking.

• What is the process by which these memes “compete” and “successfully” pass from person to person?
• If humans and their genetic material also have a “replicator power” in that we learn and form social bonds through imitation, is Blackmore’s division between “replicators” and “vehicles” as neat and tidy as she makes it out to be?
• What role does the “vehicle” play in structuring and changing what gets “replicated”?
• Does Specter’s account of “gene drive” and CRISPR imply that vehicles or “hosts” can turn their powers on what Dawkins called “parasites” (Blackmore 5)? Think very carefully about Blackmore’s and Specter’s choice of words when explaining such relationships.

***

Do not use other highly publicized media and/or political events as hypothetical examples in your papers. Do not use anecdotal or personal evidence. Do not refer to historical facts that are not present in the assigned texts. Do not perform outside research. For that matter, do not use any hypothetical examples in your paper.  Only use examples from the texts to support your own argument. If you write anything akin to “in my view” or “in my opinion,” you are on the wrong track. If you write that something is “universally” known to be true, you are generalizing (and probably incorrect).

Do not attempt to answer all of the questions or issues cited above in your paper; these are simply prompts to help you to start thinking. Instead, find an angle and focus on it. It is better to write more about a smaller topic so that you can think more deeply and have a stronger, precise thesis.

Do not use other students’ work or solicit writing help from other students other than those in the Writing Center. Using other people’s work is plagiarism and will result in both a failing grade and immediate notification of the Writing Program and Dean’s Office.

To pass this paper, you must have an independent argument supported by analysis: close readings of the assigned texts. Papers that summarize, misread, and/or do not engage with quotations from Specter’s and Blackmore’s essays will not pass.

BE ADVISED

You will be marked down a full grade each day your final draft is late. You will be marked down a half-grade every day your rough draft is late.  

You will be marked a half grade off for not participating in all aspects of the paper-writing process, including completing peer revision.

You cannot pass Basic Composition without completing both rough and final drafts for all five papers.

Remember to follow MLA formatting guidelines as specified in your syllabus for both your rough and final drafts.  This means that you must quote and cite the essay(s) correctly, and type both your rough and final drafts in 12-point, Times New Roman font with one-inch margins.  For MLA guidelines: http://owl(dot)english(dot)purdue(dot)edu/owl/resource/747/01/.

Also be sure to write a title (i.e. not “Paper 3”), word count, page numbers, and STAPLE both your rough and final drafts. I do not carry a stapler with me.