The Selfish Gene

A must have book for a researcher in memetic computation

Link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Selfish-Gene-Edition-Introduction/dp/0199291152\
Reading Status: Not Completed

The Meme Machine

This is a very good book that explains the meme concepts in terms of potential of meme in explaining social movement and engineering and aspects of human society. It contains the detailed description of concepts such as imitation, although as a computer science research, i am more inclined to concepts in "The selfish meme" which describes concepts with hierarchical structure readily translatable to models for computational intelligence methods.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/019286212X
Reading Status: Completed

Evolutionary Game Theory

This text introduces current evolutionary game theory -- where ideas from evolutionary biology and rationalistic economics meet -- emphasizing the links between static and dynamic approaches and noncooperative game theory. Much of the text is devoted to the key concepts of evolutionary stability and replicator dynamics. The former highlights the role of mutations and the latter the mechanisms of selection. Moreover, set-valued static and dynamic stability concepts, as well as processes of social evolution, are discussed. Separate background chapters are devoted to noncooperative game theory and the theory of ordinary differential equations. There are examples throughout as well as individual chapter summaries.Because evolutionary game theory is a fast-moving field that is itself branching out and rapidly evolving, Jörgen Weibull has judiciously focused on clarifying and explaining core elements of the theory in an up-to-date, comprehensive, and self-contained treatment. The result is a text for second-year graduate students in economic theory, other social sciences, and evolutionary biology. The book goes beyond filling the gap between texts by Maynard-Smith and Hofbauer and Sigmund that are currently being used in the field.Evolutionary Game Theory will also serve as an introduction for those embarking on research in this area as well as a reference for those already familiar with the field. Weibull provides an overview of the developments that have taken place in this branch of game theory, discusses the mathematical tools needed to understand the area, describes both the motivation and intuition for the concepts involved, and explains why and how it is relevant to economics.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Evolutionary-Game-Theory-Jorgen-Weibull/dp/0262731215
Reading Status: not completed

The Selfish-Meme

Culture is a unique and fascinating aspect of the human species. How did it emerge and how does it develop? Richard Dawkins has suggested that culture evolves and that memes are the cultural replicators, subject to variation and selection in the same way as genes function in the biological world. In this sense human culture is the product of a mindless evolutionary algorithm. Does this imply that we are mere meme machines and that the conscious self is an illusion? Kate Distin extends and strengthens Dawkins's theory and presents a fully developed and workable concept of cultural DNA. She argues that culture's development can be seen both as the result of memetic evolution and as the product of human creativity. Memetic evolution is therefore compatible with the view of humans as conscious and intelligent.

Link: http://www.amazon.com/The-Selfish-Meme-Critical-Reassessment/dp/0521606276
Reading Status: Completed