A meme is an idea or behavior that spreads from person to person within a society. The term was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene in 1976.[1] Dawkins proposed the idea that social information could change and propagate through a culture in a way similar to genetic changes in a population of organisms i.e., evolution by natural selection. Sticking with its roots in genetics and evolution, the term is derived from the word gene, which is a unit of hereditary biological information made of DNA. Compared to a gene, which has a physical existence within a cell nucleus, a meme is far more abstract and this has led to accusations that memetics isnt really hard science.
The idea was subsequently developed to include political philosophies and religions, which were named memeplexes, because they contain vast numbers of interacting memes. Memes that interact favourably will form strong memeplexes, while memeplexes will resist incompatible memes. A political memeplex valuing authority of thought would be incompatible with memes valuing individuality of thought, for example. This goes some way to explaining the polarisation of thought on the political spectrum.
Like genes, memes may be useful, negative or neutral. For example, political philosophies or indeed any philosophy including the philosophies of science are also memes or memeplexes.
Religious mythology is part of the memeplex of religion, as would be the idea that one needs religion. In the same way that Dawkins selfish genes would propagate through populations for their own benefit and not for the benefit of the organisms that carry them, memeplexes propagate through society irrespective of their value to the society. Enduring negative memeplexes are sometimes called mind viruses; with atheist proponents of memetics (e.g. Dawkins himself) citing Christian fundamentalism as one such example.
The internet has been a source for the creation and propagation of many new memes the majority of which are snowclones[wp] on image macros. On the internet an idea can be developed and quickly acquire modifications from users around the world, such that the root idea becomes the basis for multiple spin-off ideas, subsets of ideas, and other similar iterations. In this sense, a meme evolves, taking on a life of its own through the contributions of users of varied cultural backgrounds. Furthermore as large parts of the Internet are durable there is a permanent record of how the memes changed and developed.
Most memes are humorous in nature. All Your Base Are Belong to Us was an early internet meme, and lolcats is a popular emergent meme. Other memes focus on potential dangers, such as cell phones causing fires at gas pumps. Memes quickly lose their humor value weeks after being created, even days. (see: reddit, 4chan)
A scientific study of memetics was attempted with the establishment of the Journal of Memetics, which lasted from 1997-2005.[2] While memetics has gained a few boosters in fields that study culture such as social psychology, sociology, and anthropology, it has largely been ignored as a methodological approach or met with harsh criticism. In the final issue of the Journal of Memetics, Bruce Edmonds argued that memetics had failed to produce substantive results, writing I claim that the underlying reason memetics has failed is that it has not provided any extra explanatory or predictive power beyond that available without the gene-meme analogy.[3]
A common criticism of memetics is that the meme is a more primitive version of the concept of sign in semiotics repackaged in biological and evolutionary language.[4][5] Luis Benitez-Bribiesca has criticized memetics for lacking a well-formed definition of meme and argued that the high rate of mutation as proposed by the memeticists would lead to a chaotic disintegration of culture rather than a progressive evolution. (Not to mention denouncing it as a pseudoscientific dogma.)[6] Benitez-Bribiescas criticisms concerning fidelity and the ill-defined nature of memes feature in many other critiques of memetics as well. Dawkins argues that the fidelity is high enough for memetic copying to work in accordance with evolutionary processes.[7] Dan Sperber and Scott Atran reply that high fidelity copying is the exception and not the rule in cultural transmission.[8][9] Another problem concerning fidelity is the reconstructive nature of memory. Because memory does not store an exact copy of information, we can expect fidelity to decrease both in the process of copying or imitating memes from person-to-person and in the process of each individual recalling memes from memory. Atran also notes that memetics attempts to (and fails to) circumvent the evolved cognitive architecture of the mind. Robert Boyd and Peter J. Richerson claim that population thinking is more important than a model of genetic inheritance as an evolutionary analogy to cultural evolution.[10]
The issue of the definition of meme features in most of the above criticisms as well. What is, or is not, a meme? Does the meme carve nature at its joints? We know, for example, that computer viruses can follow genetic and evolutionary algorithms.[11] But how far can this application be extended into the cultural realm? Mesoudi, Whiten, and Laland argue that advances in modern genetics have chipped away at the definition of the gene as a discrete unit and so the same criticism might be applied to genetics, but it is still a useful field. However, they also note some of the successes of non-memetic cultural evolutionary models such as Boyd and Richersons population thinking approach in classifying archaeological artifacts.[12] Jeremy Burman claims that the meme was just a metaphor that got taken seriously and reified by a few too many people.[13] Many of the criticisms listed above, however, assert that whether the meme itself can be found or said to exist is irrelevant to its usefulness as it fails to provide a useful framework or systematic set of falsifiable predictions due to the circularity in the definition of fitness. (How do we know which memes are the most fit? The ones that spread the most are the fittest. And which memes spread the most? The ones that are the fittest, of course!)
Memetics has only a passing resemblance to genetics. In genetics, there is a clear separation between genes, genotypes, and phenotypes. That a gene is a proxy code for the phenotype, and the phenotype is what experiences selection pressure, not the gene. This is what allows natural selection to take place based on random mutation and inheritance of the code. A meme, however, is a jumble of the three concepts it acts as a gene but is also its own phenotype. Without this distinction, the evolution of memes is more Lamarckian than Darwinian. This should come as little surprise to those who consider that memes are the result of Dawkins proposing an rough allegory of genetics, rather than a serious science. To underscore the features of genetics that involve passing on information, a fairly legitimate comparison to how humans share and adapt ideas can be made. However, the similarities end there.
In fact, as an object of study, folklore comes closest to the subject proposed by the notion of memes. (For the idea of the meme as it has developed popularly, folklore is just the original name.) Folklorists have always paid attention to the ways that folk culture, arts, and traditions are handed down from one person to another and from one generation to the next. They hit upon the concept of the folk process: the way in whi ch folklore is preserved, edited, and amended in the process of its transmission, a process that keeps the folk culture relevant and useful as it is transmitted.
The folklorists blinkered themselves early on by their insistence on exclusively oral transmission and arbitrary esthetic preferences for the authentic. It wasnt until the 1970s and afterwards that folklorists realized that folklore was also being created by popular interactions with and responses to mass culture. The folklorists also learned to unsee the sharp distinction between the oral, handmade, and authentic versus published and mass-produced cultural artifacts. Technology was turning this into a continuum. Folklore could be spread by self-published broadsheets, by photocopier and fax machine, by email, and on the Internet. (Just like some folks took a while to figure out that folk music could be played on electric guitars.)
When the subject matter of folklore is expanded this way, it would appear in some ways to swallow the idea of the meme. At minimum, folklore offers an alternative vocabulary to discuss the preservation, alteration, and expansion of cultural ideas in the process of their transmission, one that does not need biological metaphors.
Continued here:
Meme RationalWiki
Go here to read the rest:
Memetics | Prometheism.net - Part 3
- Mem Wikipedia [Last Updated On: December 8th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 8th, 2016]
- Meme RationalWiki [Last Updated On: December 8th, 2016] [Originally Added On: December 8th, 2016]
- Thagomizer and Four Other Invented Words - Big Shiny Robot! [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Cognitive science: Dennett rides again - Nature.com [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- The scientific controversy behind memes - Varsity Online [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Is America Prepared for Meme Warfare? - Motherboard [Last Updated On: February 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 7th, 2017]
- Row erupts as East London gallery accused of showing 'alt-right' and 'racist' art - Art Newspaper [Last Updated On: February 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 23rd, 2017]
- Memetics | Psychology Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia [Last Updated On: February 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 25th, 2017]
- The Meme Culture of America is Taking Over - TrendinTech [Last Updated On: February 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: February 28th, 2017]
- Do Daniel C. Dennett's memes deserve to survive? - Spectator.co.uk [Last Updated On: March 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 2nd, 2017]
- Memetics | Prometheism.net - Part 2 [Last Updated On: March 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 2nd, 2017]
- On Memetics and the Transfer of Cultural Information - Paste Magazine [Last Updated On: March 3rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: March 3rd, 2017]
- Memes could be the key to predicting the future - Digit [Last Updated On: April 8th, 2017] [Originally Added On: April 8th, 2017]
- Editorial: Circumspect, respect - Sun.Star [Last Updated On: June 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 6th, 2017]
- Meme-Gene Coevolution - Susan Blackmore [Last Updated On: June 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 7th, 2017]
- Homemade cures for erectile dysfunction - Queens Tribune [Last Updated On: June 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 26th, 2017]
- Memefacturing dissent! Breaking down the 'science' of memes in India - Mid-Day [Last Updated On: July 1st, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 1st, 2017]
- The Meme-ing of Life - Aitkin Independent Age [Last Updated On: July 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 6th, 2017]
- Internet Memes Are Changing The Way We Communicate IRL - HuffPost UK [Last Updated On: July 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 14th, 2017]
- Female viagra lotion - What is female viagra called - The Village Reporter and the Hometown Huddle [Last Updated On: July 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 15th, 2017]
- The Meme-ing of life - MessAge Media: Our Columnists - Aitkin Independent Age [Last Updated On: July 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 15th, 2017]
- Is cipro a form of penicillin - Cipro company registration form - The Village Reporter and the Hometown Huddle [Last Updated On: July 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 16th, 2017]
- The Pro-Trump Media Is Full Of Offensive Memes And Trolls, But Is It A Hate Group? - BuzzFeed News [Last Updated On: July 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 26th, 2017]
- The Most Influential Memes on the Internet - Fox Weekly [Last Updated On: July 29th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 29th, 2017]
- Red viagra - Viagra and red bull safe - Bournville Village [Last Updated On: August 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 6th, 2017]
- Female viagra pills name - Buy female viagra online cheap - Bournville Village [Last Updated On: August 9th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 9th, 2017]
- Alt-Right? No, the Far Right. - Patheos (blog) [Last Updated On: August 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 13th, 2017]
- On Memetics [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2017]
- Skin care specialist school - Does cialis require a prescription in usa - Bournville Village [Last Updated On: August 16th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 16th, 2017]
- Cialis super active plus canada - Cialis super active plus online - Filipino Express [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2017]
- Best price on combivent inhaler - Proventil and combivent - Filipino Express [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2017]
- The matter with memes - The GUIDON [Last Updated On: August 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 25th, 2017]
- Memes, memes everywhere | SunStar - Sun.Star [Last Updated On: August 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 25th, 2017]
- What is Net-Centric Warfare? | Daniel K. Buntovnik [Last Updated On: February 13th, 2018] [Originally Added On: February 13th, 2018]
- What is a Meme? | The Daily Meme [Last Updated On: March 24th, 2018] [Originally Added On: March 24th, 2018]
- Indicators Of Sight Loss | MeMetics [Last Updated On: May 1st, 2018] [Originally Added On: May 1st, 2018]
- Memetics and Infohazards Division Orientation - SCP Foundation [Last Updated On: July 3rd, 2018] [Originally Added On: July 3rd, 2018]
- Philosophy of Religion Religion and Memetics [Last Updated On: July 3rd, 2018] [Originally Added On: July 3rd, 2018]
- Best Search Engines To Use | MeMetics [Last Updated On: August 7th, 2018] [Originally Added On: August 7th, 2018]
- Applied Memetics LLC Employee Reviews - Indeed.com [Last Updated On: December 23rd, 2018] [Originally Added On: December 23rd, 2018]
- How Ford Ensures Drive comfort in the 2018 ... - memetics.com [Last Updated On: December 23rd, 2018] [Originally Added On: December 23rd, 2018]
- MeMetics - Your Trusted Online News and How-to Site [Last Updated On: December 23rd, 2018] [Originally Added On: December 23rd, 2018]
- Disinfect Your Mind: Defend Yourself with Memetics Against ... [Last Updated On: January 20th, 2019] [Originally Added On: January 20th, 2019]
- Viral marketing - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: January 28th, 2019] [Originally Added On: January 28th, 2019]
- Dual inheritance theory - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: February 14th, 2019] [Originally Added On: February 14th, 2019]
- Internal Memes: Parasites and Predators of the Mind - Psychology Today [Last Updated On: October 1st, 2019] [Originally Added On: October 1st, 2019]
- Just Following Orders? Why Extremism is a Choice - Clarion Project [Last Updated On: October 22nd, 2019] [Originally Added On: October 22nd, 2019]
- The Hi-Tech Traditionalist: From Samizdat To Memetics What Is Similar And What Is Different Between Soviet And American Dissidents - Tsarizm [Last Updated On: November 14th, 2019] [Originally Added On: November 14th, 2019]
- Book That Inspired Facebooks Chief VR Researcher And Coined Metaverse To Get HBO Series - UploadVR [Last Updated On: December 21st, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 21st, 2019]
- Snow Crash TV Series Adaptation is Coming to HBO Max - Epicstream [Last Updated On: December 21st, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 21st, 2019]
- 'Snow Crash' TV Series in the Works at HBO Max - /FILM [Last Updated On: December 21st, 2019] [Originally Added On: December 21st, 2019]
- Italy under the coronavirus attack: the return of the Plague Spreaders - Resilience [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2020]
- Looking forward to being with my great friends in India: US President Donald Trump - Deccan Herald [Last Updated On: February 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: February 24th, 2020]
- Army Of Contact-Tracing Workers Being Recruited To Help Combat Coronavirus Pandemic - CBS San Francisco [Last Updated On: May 19th, 2020] [Originally Added On: May 19th, 2020]
- Working at AM LLC: Employee Reviews | Indeed.com [Last Updated On: May 19th, 2020] [Originally Added On: May 19th, 2020]
- Memetics | Psychology Wiki | Fandom [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2020]
- Meme - Wikipedia [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2020]
- Memetics - Dr Susan Blackmore [Last Updated On: July 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 27th, 2020]
- Understanding Memetics - SCP Foundation [Last Updated On: July 27th, 2020] [Originally Added On: July 27th, 2020]
- How to Build Narrative Power and Co-Create a Just Future - Resilience [Last Updated On: January 30th, 2021] [Originally Added On: January 30th, 2021]