Editorials, autobiography, cultural analysis, translations
of scientific and technical jargon into English. Like a blog
but with thematic focus.
I welcome your comments. Send them to memebase at ethanhein
dot com.
Richard Dawkins
coined the term 'meme' (rhymes with 'theme') in his book The
Selfish Gene. A meme is a unit of cultural information transferable
from one mind to another by imitation. Examples of memes are
tunes, catchphrases, clothing fashions, pottery techniques
and social norms. A meme propagates itself as a unit of cultural
evolution and diffusion — analogous in many ways to
the behavior of the gene, the unit of genetic information.
Often memes propagate together as 'memeplexes', more-or-less
integrated cooperative sets or groups, the way genes come
together in chromosomes.
Proponents of the idea suggest that memes evolve via natural
selection, as described by
Darwin concerning the evolution of organisms. Memes display
variation, mutation, and competition, and inheritance can
influence their replicative success. For example, while one
idea may become extinct, other ideas will survive, spread
and mutate. Memes most beneficial to their hosts won't necessarily
be the most successful; rather, those memes which replicate
the most effectively for whatever reason will spread best,
suggesting the possibility that memes parasitize their human
hosts.
As I understand it, a meme is less a 'thing', and more an
algorithm for producing human behavior that gets imitated
by other humans, the way a gene is fundamentally an algorithm
for making more genes. The 'phenotype' of a memeplex like,
say, the song Yellow Submarine by
the Beatles, manifests in the world anytime the song is
sung, listened to, written out, recorded, unconscously hummed,
etc. The Yellow Submarine memeplex has mutated into endless
cover versions and alternate arrangements, an animated movie,
and a piece of Michael Jackson's investment portfolio. Taken
together, all versions of and references to the song are part
of Yellow Submarine's extended
phenotype.
Here's my semi-domesticated memepool. Enjoy.