Ideas change everything

Dangerous memes

2,125,014 plays|

Dan Dennett |

TED2002

• February 2002

Starting with the simple tale of an ant, philosopher Dan Dennett unleashes a devastating salvo of ideas, making a powerful case for the existence of memes -- concepts that are literally alive.

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Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

Starting with the simple tale of an ant, philosopher Dan Dennett unleashes a devastating salvo of ideas, making a powerful case for the existence of memes -- concepts that are literally alive.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.

About the speaker

Philosopher, cognitive scientist

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Dan Dennett made the case that human consciousness and free will are the result of physical processes.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference.

Read our curation guidelines.