From The Atlantic article: "In the AST [...] was further adapted to model the attentional states of others, to allow for social prediction. Not only could the

From The Atlantic article: "In the AST [...] was further adapted to model the attentional states of others, to allow for social prediction. Not only could the brain attribute consciousness to itself, it began to attribute consciousness to others." On the face of it this AST theory would nicely support Susan Blackmore's work on the `meme`. Recall Dawkins first proposed the meme, because he thought the gene was such a powerful mechanism there must be other similarly algorithmic mechanisms in nature. In her 1999 book on the subject Blackmore proposed the theory `imitation` is at the heart of the evolution of human theory of mind "...if you want to know whether that huge male gorilla is likely to attack you if you try to mate with this attractive female, you should try to imagine what you would do in the same situation." (Blackmore, 73.3) "'Arms races' are common in biology, as when predators evolve to run ever faster to catch their faster prey, or parasites evolve to outwit the immune systems of their hosts." (Blackmore, 74.2) "The turning point was when early hominids began to imitate each other. The origins of imitation itself are lost in our far past, but the selective (genetic) advantage of imitation is no mystery. [...] If your neighbor has learned something really useful - like which foods to eat and which to avoid [...] it may pay (in biological terms) to copy him. You can then avoid all the slow and potentially dangerous process of trying out new foods for yourself." (Blackmore, 75.3) "I suggested imitation requires three skills: making decisions about what to imitate, complex transformations from one point of view to another, and the production of matching bodily actions. These basic skills, or at least the beginnings of them, are available in many primates and were probably available to our ancestors of 5 million years ago. Primates have good motor control and hand coordination, and good general intelligence which would enable them to classify actions and decide what to imitate. Some of them can imagine events and manipulate them mentally [...] and, most notably, they have [social intelligence] and the beginnings of a theory of mind." (Blackmore, 75.5) Seems this AST theory would offer Darwinian continuity and fill gaps in the qualitative theories of mind between other organisms and the exceptional human condition. Blackmore, Susan. The Meme Machine. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. (1999) Dawkins, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. (1976)