 The idea of memes, and the word itself, were originally speculated by Richard Dawkins in his book "The Selfish Gene" although similar, or analogous, concepts had been in currency for a while before its publishing.Richard Dawkins wrote a foreword to "The Meme Machine".In the book, Blackmore examines the difficulties associated with the meme including its definition and how to spot one as well as the difficulties which arise from seeing it as being like the gene.