| birth_place | death_date | death_place | death_cause | resting_place | resting_place_coordinates | residence | nationality | other_names | known_for | education St. Hilda's College, Oxford
University of Surrey | employer | occupation Freelance writer
Lecturer
Presenter | title | salary | networth | height | weight | term | predecessor | successor | party | boards | religion | spouse Adam Hart-Davis | children | parents | relatives | signature | website http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/ Official Website] | footnotes }} Susan Jane Blackmore PhD, (born 29 July 1951) is an England freelance writer lecturer and Presenter on psychology and the paranormal perhaps best known for her book [[The Meme Machine]]

Career

In 1973, Susan Blackmore graduated from St. Hilda's College, Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and physiology She went on to do a postgraduate degree in environmental psychology at the University of Surrey achieving an Master of Arts (postgraduate) degree in 1974. In 1980, she got her Doctor of Philosophy degree in parapsychology from the same university, her thesis being entitled "Extrasensory Perception as a Cognitive Process." After some period of time spent in research on parapsychology and the paranormal Blackmore 1986, p.163 her attitude towards the field moved from belief to scepticism.Blackmore 1987, p.249 She is a Fellow of the CSICOP and in 1991 was awarded the CSICOP Distinguished Skeptic Award.http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/whoswho/index.htm A Whos Who of Media Skeptics: Skeptics or Dogmatists?]. Accessed 2008-06-03. Blackmore has done research on meme (which she wrote about in her popular book The Meme Machine and Evolution Her book Consciousness: An Introduction(2004), is a textbook that broadly covers the field of consciousness studies. 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.lt;/ref> She acted as one of the psychologist who was featured on the British version of the television show "Big Brother television program , speaking about the psychological state of the contestants. She is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association http://www.humanism.org.uk/about/people/distinguished-supporters Distinguished Supporters - British Humanist Association], accessed 2008-1-12

Memetics

Susan Blackmore has made contributions to the field of memetics The term [[:wiktionary:meme|meme]]was coined by Richard Dawkins in his 1976 book [[The Selfish Gene]] In his foreword to Blackmores book The Meme Machine(1999), Dawkins said, "Any theory deserves to be given its best shot, and that is what Susan Blackmore has given the theory of the meme."Blackmore 2000, p.xvi Other treatments of memes can be found in the works of Robert Aunger: The Electric Meme and Jon Whitty: A Memetic Paradigm of Project Managementhttp://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv.php?pidUQ:8801&dsIDsjw_ijpm_05.pdf A Memetic Paradigm of Project Management] Blackmores treatment of memetics insists that memes are true evolution ry 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 human in order to facilitate them have recently been given further support by research on mirror neurons and the differences in extent of these structures between humans and the presummed closest branch of simian ancestors.Iacoboni, M., "Understanding others: imitation, language, empathy" In: Perspectives on imitation: from cognitive neuroscience to social science, Hurley, S., and Chater, N. (Eds), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, in press 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 The chapter titled Universal Darwinism in The Meme Machine may have been the first usage of this term to denote the body of scientific knowledge employing Darwinian mechanisms. At the February 2008 TED conference Blackmore introduced a special category of memes called temes Temes are memes which live in technological artifacts instead of the human mind.http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/susan_blackmore_on_memes_and_temes.html Susan Blackmore on memes and "temes"], 2008 TED conference (video)

Personal life

Blackmore is an active practitioner of Zen although she identifies herself as "not a Buddhist .http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Zen/intro.htm Dr. Susan Blackmore] Blackmore is an atheist who has criticised religion sharply, having said, for instance, that "all kinds of infectious memes thrive in religions, in spite of being false, such as the idea of a creator god, virgin birth (mythology) , the subservience of women, transubstantiation and many more. In the major religions, they are backed up by admonitions to have faith not doubt, and by untestable but ferocious rewards and punishments."http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Chapters/NeurotheologyZen.htm Dr. Susan Blackmore]

Publications

Books

*Beyond the Body: An Investigation of Out-Of-The-Body Experiences Academy Chicago Publishers, 1983, ISBN 0-586-08428-2 (first edition), ISBN 0-89733-344-6 (second edition) *In Search of the Light: The Adventures of a Parapsychologist Prometheus Books 1987, ISBN 0-87975-360-9 (first edition), ISBN 1-57392-061-4 (second edition, 1996) *Dying to Live: Near-Death Experiences Prometheus Books, 1993, ISBN 0-87975-870-8 *Test Your Psychic Powers with Adam Hart-Davis Thorsons Publishing, 1995, ISBN 1-85538-441-8, ISBN 0-8069-9669-2 (reprint edition) *[[The Meme Machine]] Oxford University Press reprint edition 2000, ISBN 0-19-286212-X *Consciousness: An Introduction Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 0-19-515342-1 (hardcover), ISBN 0-19-515343-X (paperback) *Consciousness: A Very Short Introduction Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-280585-1 *Conversations on ConsciousnessOxford University Press, 2005 ISBN 0-19-280622-X

Articles

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Notes

Further reading

* "Why I Have Given Up", in Skeptical Odysseys: Personal Accounts by the Worlds Leading Paranormal Inquirers, edited by Paul Kurtz Prometheus Books ISBN 1-57392-884-4, chapter 6, 85-94. http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Chapters/Kurtz.htm available online] * "The Elusive Open Mind: Ten Years of Negative Research in Parapsychology", Skeptical Inquirer 11 244-55. http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/si87.html available online] (dead link 31-08-2010) * "A Critical Examination of the Blackmore Psi Experiments", The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 83: 23-144. http://www.parapsych.org/psiexplorer/blackmore_critique.htm available online]

External links

*http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/ Susan Blackmores website] *http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sue_blackmore Susan Blackmores blog on The Guardians Comment is Free *http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/269 TED Talks: Susan Blackmore on memes and "temes"] at TED (conference) in 2008 *http://www.mungbeing.com/issue_3.html?page22#111 Interview with Susan Blackmore] *http://nextmodernitylibrary.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/07/18/la-theorie-des-memes-pourquoi-nous-nous-imitons-les-uns-les.html The Meme Machine, Interview of Susan Blackmore] *http://www.skeptiko.com/index.php?id12 Audio interview with Dr. Susan Blackmore, exploring her journey from a disillusioned parapsychology researcher to an author on human consciousness.] *http://richarddawkins.net/articles/2395 Sue Blackmore debates Alister McGrath (author of The Dawkins Delusion) at Bristol University on the motion that "belief in God is a dangerous delusion". 13 November. 2007.] Category:Consciousness researchers and theorists Category:Parapsychologists Category:British atheists Category:British humanists Category:British psychologists Category:Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford Category:Alumni of the University of Surrey Category:1951 births Category:Living people Category:Atheism activists Category:Memetics cs:Susan Blackmore de:Susan Blackmore es:Susan Blackmore fr:Susan Blackmore hu:Susan Blackmore ja:スーザン・ブラックモア pl:Susan Blackmore pt:Susan Blackmore fi:Susan Blackmore