# There Aren't Enough Minds to House the Population Explosion of Memes by Daniel C. Dennett > “If we don't drown, how will we cope? If we somehow learn to swim in the rising tide of the infosphere, that will entail that we–that is to say, our grandchildren and their grandchildren–become very very different from our recent ancestors. What will "we" be like? (Some years ago, Doug Hofstadter wrote a wonderful piece, " In 2093, Just Who Will Be We?" in which he imagines robots being created to have "human" values, robots that gradually take over the social roles of our biological descendants, who become stupider and less concerned with the things we value. If we could secure the welfare of just one of these groups, our children or our brainchildren, which group would we care about the most, with which group would we identify?)” > **— Daniel C. Dennett**, *2006, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Dangerous Idea?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [There aren't enough minds to house the population explosion of memes](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11320) — Edge published this exact passage in its 2006 Annual Question collection, *WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2006 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2006 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the complete response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s|AI in the 1970s]] - **Article:** [[articles/Christopher Nolan's Odyssey at the Threshold of Machine Succession|Nolan's Odyssey]] - **Article:** [[articles/Cyber-Physical Lessons from Imperial Beekeeping|Cyber-Physical Beekeeping]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Artificial Intelligence|Artificial Intelligence]] - [[wiki/human-machine interaction|human-machine interaction]] - [[wiki/Human-Machine Symbiosis|Human-Machine Symbiosis]] - [[wiki/Cybernetic Control|Cybernetic Control]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “If we don't drown, how will we cope? If we somehow learn to swim in the rising tide of the infosphere, that will entail that we–that is to say, our grandchildren and their grandchildren–become very very different from our recent ancestors. What will "we" be like? (Some years ago, Doug Hofstadter wrote a wonderful piece, " In 2093, Just Who Will Be We?" in which he imagines robots being created to have "human" values, robots that gradually take over the social roles of our biological descendants, who become stupider and less concerned with the things we value. If we could secure the welfare of just one of these groups, our children or our brainchildren, which group would we care about the most, with which group would we identify?)” — Daniel C. Dennett, 2006, Edge Annual Question, “What Is Your Dangerous Idea?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-daniel-dennett-there-aren-t-enough-minds ```