OK, so here’s the idea…
I am reading an astounding book right now called On the Origin of Teepees, which involves the Darwinian notion that just as genetic material is really in charge of evolution, ideas are the drivers of human evolution since we’ve become, as brains sitting atop bodies, but receptacles for ideas. Our physical evolution has been frozen now for several tens of millennia, but as a vehicle for ideas (or rather, memes), our brains have a long ways to go. We are idea machines, and human evolution now has more to do with ideas and “cultural” evolution rather than physical adaptations.
This is interesting, particularly in light of recent political events, when people seemed hyper-possessed by political ideology. It turns out, Tea Party politics is a mind virus.