Memes and sleep

 Dennett caught my attention when he discussed what we as humans saw as the point of life. A life of exploring, learning new things is not exactly the way Mother Nature sees it. Instead he mentions that,  "a life of sleep is as good a life as any other and in many regards better --- certainly cheaper --- than most (p.340). Now that I believe is a great motto to live by considering the lack of attention many of my peers seem to pay to the subject of sleep. Wouldn't be interesting if our bodies worked similarly to bears and other mammals that hibernate all winter? Now that would be an interesting experiment, could we sleep through winter? what kinds of changes would our bodies go through? Looking into the ways in which organisms cold evolve and devolve would be something fun to look into.

Onto to the topic of memes and memetics, I feel as though Dennett makes a good argument for what it is, explaining that it is a part of culture that replicate themselves and are past on. These units are very small and he gives examples of some like, certain songs, idea such as the wheel, the act of wearing clothes, etc. But it makes me wonder still if something like the Mona Lisa which has been replicated is as popular and has been passed on from one mind to another is a meme. Though not 100% convinced on the exact definition and understanding of a meme outside of the examples he gives I do feel that his attempt to link the meme and gene is a tad bit far fetched. the gene is much more complicated to me and the simplification to equate the idea of a meme to it doesn't sit well with me.