Human beings have always thought that we are in control; that we are the determining factors of this world and its existence. When you look deep enough in the things that work in this world, there can be similarities that were never imagined. Questions about the true power behind humans and the technology they have created. Questions are brought up that try to prove what or who is really running the show, and has complete control. Steven Johnson, author of "Control Artist" from Emergence, brings up the question, "Who's driving here, human or machine?" Before you can answer this question you must first determine what a human or machine really is. Is it possible that a human could be considered a machine? The memes that make up a human and the emergent systems do in fact have many similarities in the way they act. For me, humans are nothing but a machine themselves, working just like any other machine. .
Johnson talks about a human-made machine called emergent systems and how unpredictable these systems can be. An emergent system can at times be uncontrollable and seem to have no rules. A person must activate the emergent system to see what will actually happen. Johnson states, "You have to make it live before you can understand how it works" (Johnson 165). He is telling us that you will not know how the emergent system will work until it is started. Johnson refers to the emergent system as if they were living; as if they had a choice of what they will do. The programmer doesn't seem to have the control of the outcome, the human-made emergent system does. Blackmore believes that her theory of memes is similar to that of Johnson's emergent systems. To Blackmore, memes are in a way uncontrollable and do what they want to do just like emergent systems. She tells us that the memes persuade us in doing things in our lives: "We all live our lives as a lie, and sometimes a desperately unhappy and confused lie.