Another Great Explication

Well said. Two things of note:

1. In your closing you say, “Are genes and memes really selfish? Yes, of course! Are we just clockwork oranges? No, of course not!” Actually, whether we are clockwork oranges remains to be seen. How we evolve artificial intelligence is likely to be the ultimate test as I see it.
2. While one could loosely interpret your environmental references to be allusions to the extended phenotype, and their survival over generations with epigenetics, still look forward to full explication of these processes.

Doc Huston