Meme
19312
225421195
2008-07-13T16:30:58Z
96.231.55.112
{{Otheruses}}
{{Original research|date=September 2007}}
{{external links}}
<!-- This introductory section aims to give a highschool level, solid, basic understanding of the meme concept, as defined by Dawkins and those who support memetics; thus, contributors and editors should express themselves in the SHARPEST manner possible using the MINIMUM POSSIBLE words that a 15 year old can understand. Please put all claims against Dawkinsian memetics in section # 2.3 Doubts about memetics. Therein, build a consensus and define a word like "anti-meme" (go on guys, write a book and make up your own word) that can be embraced by all the "anti-memetician theorists" (go on guys and get on the same team). Then, when you have a word, a following and a large body of accepted work published by major universities and big publishing houses you can create your own page, with your own work/idea and place in the intro something like, "The opposite of meme is anti-meme." This is the Wikipedia way.-->
A '''meme''' ({{pronEng|miːm}})<ref>See for example the pronunciation in [http://www.bartleby.com/61/9/M0210950.html ''The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language'']: Fourth Edition, 2000; and compare the original suggestion of the coiner of the word recommending a pronunciation to rhyme with "cream": Richard Dawkins, ''The Selfish Gene''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989 ISBN 0-19-217773-7 page 192</ref> is a popular neologism for the term [[Culture|cultural trait]]; that is, a learned thought, feeling, or behavior. Examples include thoughts, ideas, theories, practices, habits, songs, dances and moods. Memes propagate themselves and can move through a "[[culture]]" in a manner similar to the behavior of a [[virus]]. As a unit of [[cultural evolution]], a meme in some ways resembles a [[gene]]. [[Richard Dawkins]], in his book ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'',<ref>{{Cite book| edition = 2nd ed., new ed| publisher = Oxford University Press| isbn = 0192177737| pages = 352| last = Dawkins| first = Richard| title = The Selfish Gene| location = Oxford| date = 1989| chapter = 11. Memes:the new replicators}} Dawkins makes it clear in the second edition that he discusses memes primarily in order to give a real-world example of non-biological replication and evolutionary principles.{{Request quotation|date=July 2008}} One could do similar thing, purely theoretically, with the concept of silicon-based life.{{Request quotation|date=July 2008}}</ref> recounts how and why he coined the term '''meme''' to describe how one might extend [[Darwinian]] principles to explain the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. He gave as examples [[melody| tune]]s, [[catch-phrase]]s, [[belief]]s, clothing-[[fashion]]s, and the [[technology]] of building arches.
Meme-theorists contend that memes evolve by [[natural selection]] (similarly to [[Charles Darwin| Darwinian]] [[biology|biological]] [[evolution]]) through the processes of [[variation]], [[mutation]], [[competition]], and [[inheritance (disambiguation)|inheritance]] influencing an individual entity's reproductive success. So with memes, some ideas will propagate less successfully and become [[extinction|extinct]], while others will survive, spread, and, for better or for worse, [[mutation|mutate]]. "Memeticists argue that the memes most beneficial to their hosts will not necessarily survive; rather, those memes that replicate the most effectively spread best, which allows for the possibility that successful memes may prove detrimental to their hosts."<ref name="Kelly">{{cite book |author=Kelly, Kevin |title=Out of control: the new biology of machines, social systems and the economic world |publisher=Addison-Wesley |location=Boston |year=1994 |pages=360 |isbn=0-201-48340-8}}
<blockquote>
"But if we consider culture as its own self organizing system,- a system with its own agenda and pressure to survive- then the history of humanity gets even more interesting. As [[Richard Dawkins]] has shown, systems of self-replicating ideas or memes can quickly accumulate their own agenda and behaviours. I assign no higher motive to a cultural entity than the primitive drive to reproduce itself and modify its environment to aid its spread. One way the self organizing system can do this is by consuming human biological resources."
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
"In [[Danny Hillis]]'s terminology, civilized humans are 'the world's most successful symbionts' — culture and biology behaving as mutually beneficial parasites for each other."
</blockquote></ref>
{{wiktionary}}
== Origins and concepts ==
[[Image:The Selfish Gene3.jpg|thumb|Richard Dawkins' ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'' first publicized the concept of memes.]]
The word ''meme'' first came into popular use with the publication of Dawkins' book ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'' in 1976. Dawkins based the word on a shortening of the Greek "mimeme" (something imitated), making it sound similar to "[[gene]]". Dawkins used the term to refer to any cultural entity that an observer might consider a [[replicator]]. He hypothesised that people could view many cultural entities as replicators, generally replicating through exposure to humans, who have evolved as efficient (though not perfect) copiers of information and behaviour. Memes do not always get copied perfectly, and might indeed become refined, combined or otherwise modified with other ideas, resulting in new memes. These memes may themselves prove more (or less) efficient replicators than their predecessors, thus providing a framework for a hypothesis of [[cultural evolution]], analogous to the theory of biological [[evolution]] based on genes.
Dawkins defined the meme as "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation", but memeticists in general promote varying definitions of the concept of the meme. The lack of a consistent, rigorous and precise understanding of what typically makes up one unit of cultural transmission remains a problem in debates about memetics.
== Etymology ==
Historically, the notion of a unit of [[social evolution]], and a similar term (from Greek ''mneme'', meaning "memory"), first appeared in 1904 in a work by the German [[evolution]]ary [[biologist]] [[Richard Semon]] titled ''Die Mnemischen Empfindungen in ihren Beziehungen zu den Originalempfindungen'' (loosely translated as "Memory-feelings in relation to original feelings"). According to the [[Oxford English Dictionary|OED]], the word ''mneme'' appears in [[English (language)|English]] in 1921 in L. Simon's translation of Semon's book: ''The Mneme''.
According to Dawkins, who coined the word "meme" without knowing about ''mnemes'', ''meme'' represents a shortened form of ''mimeme'' (from Greek ''mimos'', "mimic"). Dawkins said he wanted "a monosyllable word that sounds a bit like ''gene''".<ref>Dawkins, Richard, ''The Selfish Gene'' (Oxford University Press, USA; 3rd edition, [[April 24]], [[2006]], ISBN 0-1992-9114-4), p. 192.
To quote Dawkins more extensively:
{{quotation|We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of ''imitation''. 'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to ''meme''. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to 'memory', or to the French word ''même''. It should be pronounced to rhyme with 'cream'.|Richard Dawkins, ''The Selfish Gene''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989 ISBN 0-19-217773-7 page 192}}</ref>
== Dawkins' genetic analogy ==
Richard Dawkins introduced the term after writing that evolution depended not on the particular [[molecular genetics|chemical basis]] of [[genetics]], but only on the existence of a [[self-replication|self-replicating]] unit of transmission — in the case of biological evolution, the [[gene]]. For Dawkins, the meme exemplifies another self-replicating unit, and most importantly, one which he thought might prove useful in explaining [[human behavior]] and cultural evolution.
Dawkins himself, in a speech on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the publication of ''The Selfish Gene'', described his motivation for postulating memes: he portrayed the idea not so much as an attempt at creating an account for cultural complexity, but rather as seeking something with which the selfish-genetic mechanism would still work with unreliable replicators:
{{quotation|Next question might be, does the information have to be molecular at all? Memes. This is not something that I’ve ever wanted to push as a theory of human culture, but I originally proposed it as a kind of... almost an anti-gene, to make the point that Darwinism requires accurate replicators with phenotypic power, but they don’t necessarily have to be genes. What if they were computer viruses? They hadn’t been invented when I wrote ''The Selfish Gene'' so I went straight for memes, units of cultural inheritance.|Richard Dawkins<ref>Dawkins, Richard, [http://abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2006/1617982.htm Speech at an event at the London School of Economics held to mark the 30th anniversary of the publication of his book, The Selfish Gene], 2006</ref>}}
== Examples of memes ==
Common memes include:
* [[Common sense]], as spread from generation to generation
* Popular works, such as [[music]], [[literature]], and [[video]]; often transmitted in the form of specific quotes and scenes.
* [[Technology]] and technological artifacts: cars, paper-clips, etc. Technology demonstrates mutation as well as transmission, which memetic (or genetic) progress requires. An often-cited example of "technology as meme" involves the building of a fire. Some researchers sometimes refer to memes concerning technology as "temes", which rhymes with "memes".<ref>http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/memetics/temes.htm Temes in technology</ref> Also see [[Moore's Law]].
* [[Tradition]]s, including [[religion]], [[fashion]], [[proverb]]s, [[epic poem]]s, stories, music, dance, and children's culture
* [[Theories]], including [[Scientific theories|scientific]], pseudo-scientific, and [[Conspiracy theories|conspiratorial]]
* Medical and safety advice: "Don't swim for an hour after eating", "Stop, drop, and roll".
* Popular concepts: these include [[Freedom (political)|Freedom]], [[Justice]], [[Ownership]], [[Open Source]], [[Egoism]], or [[Altruism]]
* Group-based biases: everything from [[antisemitism]] and [[racism]] to [[cargo cult]]s.
* [[Programming paradigms]]: from [[structured programming]] and [[object-oriented programming]] to [[extreme programming]].
* [[Phrase]]s, slogans, and expressions. May come from advertising ("Whasssssup!"; sometimes accompanied by melodies), the Internet ("[[all your base are belong to us]]!") or politics ("[[mob rule]]")
* [[Viral marketing]]: a type of [[marketing]] based on memes and using "[[word of mouth]]" to advertise (see the [[as of 2007|recent]] example of ''[[Snakes on a Plane]]'').
The ''Memetic Lexicon'' lists meme-attributes compiled by Glenn Grant under a "share-alike" license. The examples it offers may help to focus the concept. The Lexicon has circulated since the early 1990s, and evolved into its version 3.5 of its [[memeplex]] (Memelex) in 2004: [http://www.istop.com/~ggrant/memetics/memelex.html A Memetic Lexicon]. One should keep in mind that Glenn Grant has the background of a writer of fiction rather that of an authority on memetics: many of the terms in the lexicon he simply invented as an experiment in the spread of his own self-generated memes. [http://www.istop.com/~ggrant/memes.html]
== Transmission of memes ==
Life-forms transmit information vertically (from generation to generation) via replication of genes. Memes can also transmit information vertically by replication. Memes also spread from hosts horizontally within a generation. They may also lie dormant for long periods of time: [[Copernicus]] re-discovered the ancient heliocentric views of [[Aristarchus of Samos|Aristarchus]].
Memes spread by the behaviors that they generate in their hosts. For example, the [[fashion]]-value that "less is more" spreads through the [[behavior]] of people dressing down in understated clothes and acting superior. This behavior then has the effect of showing others a real-life example of this fashion-value. Verbal transmission can supplement or replace this imitative method.
Those interested in tracking how memes spread through culture may use [[memetracker]]s, [[websites]] that allow one to see how people receive, use, and spread new information on the [[World Wide Web|Web]]. [[Cameron Marlowe]]'s [[Blogdex]] project pioneered research on this topic.
== Memes as discrete units ==
Although memeticists speak of memes as discrete units, this need not imply that thoughts somehow become [[quantize]]d or that "[[atom]]ic" ideas exist which one cannot break down into smaller pieces. The meme as a unit simply provides a convenient way of discussing "a piece of thought copied from person to person", regardless of whether that thought contains others inside it, or forms part of a larger meme. A meme could consist of a single word, or a meme could consist of the entire speech in which that word was first uttered. This forms an analogy to the idea of a gene as a self-replicating set of code. In 1981 biologists [[Charles J. Lumsden]] and [[Edward Osborne Wilson]] published a theory of gene/culture co-evolution in the book ''Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process''.<ref>[[Charles J. Lumsden]] and [[Edward Osborne Wilson]]: ''Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process''. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981. ISBN 0674344758</ref>
They argued that the fundamental biological units of culture must correspond to neuronal networks that function as nodes of semantic [[memory]]. Wilson later adopted the term ''meme'' as the best existing name for the fundamental unit of cultural inheritance and elaborated upon the fundamental role of memes in unifying the [[Natural science|natural]] and [[social sciences]] in his book ''[[Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge]]''.<ref>[[Edward Osborne Wilson]]: ''[[Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge]]''. New York: Knopf, 1998. ISBN 0679450777</ref>
== Meme-like concepts before Dawkins ==
[[Plato]] used the term ''[[eidos]]'' to speak of the immutable and eternal nature of an existing thing. The human mind acted upon this ''eidos'', according to Plato, when reasoning about the world around it. [[Aristotle]] rejected this notion in favor of an abstraction and categorization of the world as perceived by the observer.
Descriptions of meme-like concepts appear in [[Sufi]] teaching. [[Muwakkal]]s rank as separate beings, elementals, that make up human thought (compare [[Gottfried Leibniz|Leibniz's]] [[Monadology|monads]]). These "elemental thoughts" also appear in the [[Vajrayana]] tradition as [[thoughtform]] [[simulacrum]].
During the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] the terms "idea", "perception", and "impression" came into use. The essential meaning of the term "idea", as then used, involved some existent phenomena resulting from perception of a stimulus and cogitation on that stimulus.
[[Charles Darwin]] struggled with the concept in his early notebooks (M and N Notebooks) and never succeeded in adequately addressing the complexities of the human social and cognitive capabilities. While Darwin lacked proof for a biologically-inheritable element, he had postulated one and seemed quite comfortable with the concept of biologically-inherited social traits. (A modern biologist ignorant of the connotations of the term might characterize the latter concept as "[[Social Darwinism]]".) Darwin also wrote of selection of novelty and fashion and quoted [[Max Müller]] on the struggle amongst words and grammatical forms:<ref>Darwin, Charles. ''The Descent of Man'', Chapter III, Mental Powers, pp.90-91.</ref>
{{quotation|words are continually cropping up; but as there is a limit to the powers of the memory, single words, like whole languages, gradually become extinct. As Max Müller has well remarked: — "A struggle for life is constantly going on amongst the words and grammatical forms in each language. The better, the shorter, the easier forms are constantly gaining the upper hand, and they owe their success to their own inherent virtue." To these more important causes of the survival of certain words, mere novelty and fashion may be added; for there is in the mind of man a strong love for slight changes in all things. The survival or preservation of certain favored words in the struggle for existence is natural selection.|Charles Darwin, ''The Descent of Man''}}
[[Gabriel Tarde]] (1843–1904), a French sociologist, developed ideas of cultural transmission based on imitation and innovation of small psychological interactions. His sociology attempted to classify social phenomena by the generation and propagation of ideas, practices, and habits. Some have seen this work as an appealing historical and theoretical precursor to [[memetics]].
[[Bertrand Russell]] repeated several times the phrase "beliefs are contagious" in his writing about human error.
[[John Laurent]] in ''The Journal of Memetics'' has suggested that the term 'meme' itself may have derived from the work of the little-known [[Germany|German]] biologist [[Richard Semon]].<ref>"[http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/1999/vol3/laurent_j.html A Note on the Origin of 'Memes'/'Mnemes']", ''Journal of Memetics: Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission''. {{OCLC|40351118}}</ref> In 1904 Semon published ''Die Mneme'', later published in English as ''The Mneme'' in 1924.<ref name="die mneme">[[Richard Semon|Semon, Richard Wolfgang]]. ''The Mneme''. London: [[Allen & Unwin]], 1921. {{OCLC|717164}}</ref> His book discussed the cultural transmission of experiences with insights parallel to those of Dawkins. Laurent found the use of the term ''mneme'' in ''The Soul of the White Ant'' (1927) by [[Maurice Maeterlinck]]<ref>[[Maurice Maeterlinck|Maeterlinck, Maurice]]. ''The Life of the White Ant''. London: [[Allen & Unwin]], 1929. {{OCLC|191994242}}</ref> (who allegedly plagiarized from [[Eugene Marais|Eugène N. Marais]]) and highlights its parallels to Dawkins' concept.
The old saying "Ideas have a life of their own" clearly encapsulates the "meme about memes". [[Keith Henson]] has traced this quote back to 1910 where an unknown interviewer of [[G. K. Chesterton]] used it—apparently as an old saying at that time.<ref>[http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.quotations/msg/679859a365f8ad0d?hl=en& "Ideas have a life of their own"], discussion from [[newsgroup]] ''alt.quotations''</ref>
One could conceivably trace this idea back to at least 1831, when [[Victor Hugo]] wrote: "[...] every thought, either philosophical or religious, is interested in perpetuating itself [...]" in his book ''Notre Dame de Paris'' (translated into English as ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]'') (Book Fifth, Chapter II).
[[John Maynard Keynes]] ended his ''[[The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money]]'' (1935) with the following:
{{quotation|[...] the ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually slaves of some defunct economist. [...] I am sure the power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas [...] But soon or late, it is ideas, not vested interests, which are dangerous for good or evil.|John Maynard Keynes<ref>Keynes, John Maynard. ''The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money''. New York: Harbinger. 1965.</ref>}}
[[Everett Rogers]] pioneered the "[[Diffusion of innovations]]" theory (formalised in 1962) which explains how and why people adopt new ideas. Rogers reflected some of the influence of [[Gabriel Tarde]] (1843–1904), who set out "laws of imitation" in his book of 1890 that explained how people decided whether to imitate [[behavior]].
The [[concept]] that ideas spread according to genetic rules predates the coining by Richard Dawkins in ''The Selfish Gene''; for example [[William S. Burroughs]] asserted that "language is a virus".
== Memeplexes ==
Much of the study of memes focuses on groups of memes called ''[[memeplex]]es'' (also known as ''meme complexes'' or as ''memecomplexes'')—such as religious, cultural, or political doctrines and systems. Memeplexes contain mutually supportive memes that together become more evolutionarily successful. These memeplexes may also play a part in the acceptance of new memes which, if they fit with a memeplex, can "piggyback" on that success. Memeplexes of religion provide a commonly-cited example.<ref>See for example John D. Gottsch: [http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2001/vol5/gottsch_jd.html "Mutation, Selection, And Vertical Transmission Of Theistic Memes In Religious Canons"] in ''Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission'', Volume 5, Issue 1, 2001. Online version retrieved [[2008-01-27]].</ref>
Without some concept of cultural evolution, one might have to postulate repeated and contradictory divine/demonic [[revelation]]s in order to account for the [[development of religion| historical record of religions]] and for the existence of various and varied [[Christian denomination|denominations]].
Statistical approaches to the identification of memeplexes can utilize quantitative data on individual responses to specific memes. A successful attempt to identify memeplexes of ideology{{Fact|date=July 2008}} requested volunteer anonymous Internet respondents to indicate their quantitative support, neutrality, or rejection of a sample of 100 isms, such as capitalism, socialism, monotheism and atheism. Great variability among individuals in degree of support and correlations among quantified responses to specific memes identified memeplexes that related to differences in political-party preferences, in religious adherence, and marital status (i.e., a profile of "the marrying kind"). A similar approach might serve{{Or|date=July 2008}} to quantify support for prototypical individuals (such as Roosevelt or Reagan) or opinions on social, economic and political issues. Quantitative analyses of responses to memes might contribute{{Or|date=July 2008}} to a science of mememetrics that would complement [[psychometrics]] in the study of individual difference.
== Memetics ==
{{main|Memetics}}
Memetics originated when Richard Dawkins reduced the process of biological genetic evolution to its most fundamental unit: the replicator (or gene). Dawkins, in a search for parallels and other things that he might classify as replicators, suggested that the information and ideas in [[brain]]s—[[culture]], for example—could function as replicators as well. [[Computer software]] may represent another form of replicator with which evolution may eventually build grand things, whether socially as in the [[open source]] movement, or through the use of [[evolutionary algorithms]].
Memetics offers maximum explanatory value in cases where one cannot demonstrate the truth of the contents of the meme.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} For example, one can readily show that washing hands helps to prevent illness, so the best explanation for the widespread popularity of this practice is that "it works", though memetics still helps explain the rate of spread, and details such as why the practice of washing hands before [[surgery]] took so long to catch on. Memetics, however, excels in explaining the spread of certain value-judgements ("[[chastity]] is important"), preferences ("[[pork]] is repulsive"), [[superstition]]s ("black cats bring bad [[luck]]") and other scientifically unverifiable beliefs ("'X' is the one true [[God]]"); since one cannot easily account for any of these phenomena by conventional scientific methods. Calling someone's ideas/beliefs/action a "meme", therefore, does not constitute an [[insult]], but dismissing it as "just a meme" does. An atheist, for example, can regard both theism and atheism as memetic.
=== Memetic methodology ===
Memetics often takes concepts from the theory of evolution (especially [[population genetics]]) and applies them to human [[culture]]. Memetics also uses [[mathematical model]]s to try to explain many very controversial subjects such as [[religion]] and [[political system]]s. Principal criticisms of memetics include the claim that memetics ignores established advances in the fields (such as [[sociology]], [[cognitive psychology]], [[social psychology]], etc.) most relevant to the claims and methodologies of memetics.
Memeticists generate much memetic terminology by prepending 'mem(e)-' to an existing, usually biological, term or by putting 'mem(e)' in place of 'gen(e)' in various terms. Examples include: [[meme pool]], [[memotype]], [[memetic engineer]], [[meme-complex]].
== Well-known memeticists ==
=== Susan Blackmore ===
[[Susan Blackmore]] theorized that a "self" merely comprises a collection of memetic [[narrative| stories]] which she calls the ''selfplex''. Her textbook ''[[The Meme Machine]]'', written in 2000 and published with a foreword by Richard Dawkins, broadly covers the field of [[consciousness]] studies. She served on the editorial board for the ''Journal of Memetics'' (an electronic journal) from 1997 to 2001, and has worked as a consulting editor of ''[[The Skeptical Inquirer]]'' since 1998.
=== Keith Henson ===
[[Keith Henson]] wrote two articles on memes in 1987, one published in ''[[Analog (magazine)|Analog]].'' The other, ''Memes, MetaMemes and Politics,'' circulated on the Internet prior to publication. [[Eric S. Raymond]], a long-time friend of Henson's, saw one of the early drafts of a later paper on [http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/cults.html cults, memes and religion] and has publicly credited it as an influence on the theory of peer-esteem rewards he developed to explain the [[open-source movement]].{{Fact|date=June 2007}} In the second edition of his book ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'', [[Richard Dawkins]] cites Henson's coining of the [[neologism]] "memeoids" to refer to "victims who have been taken over by a meme to the extent that their own survival becomes inconsequential."<ref> Suicide bombers might be said to be "memeoids" whose behavior is influenced by "lethal memes."
Dawkins, Richard. ''The Selfish Gene,'' p.330. Oxford University Press, 1989. ISBN 0192860925</ref>
== Some concepts of memetics ==
* Memetic association
* Memetic drift
* Meme-piggybacking
== Doubts about memetics ==
In much the same way that the [[selfish gene]] concept offers a way of understanding and reasoning about aspects of biological evolution, the meme concept can conceivably assist in the better understanding of some otherwise puzzling aspects of human [[culture]]. However, if one cannot test for "better" empirically, the question will remain whether or not the meme concept counts as a [[philosophy of science|valid]] scientific theory. Memetics thus remains a science in its infancy, a [[protoscience]] to proponents, or a [[pseudoscience]] to detractors.
Another objection to the study of the evolution of memes in genetic terms (although not to the existence of memes) involves the fact that the cumulative evolution of genes depends on biological selection-pressures neither too great nor too small in relation to mutation-rates. There seems no reason to think that the same balance will exist in the selection pressures on memes.<ref>Kim Sterelney and Paul E. Griffiths, ''Sex and Death: And Introduction to Philosophy of Biology'', Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1999, p.333</ref>
Some controversy has become associated with the word ''meme''{{Fact|date=March 2008}} itself: partly{{Fact|date=March 2008}} because Richard Dawkins (a self-proclaimed [[atheism| atheist]]) champions [[critical thinking]]{{Fact|date=May 2008}} and publicly challenges [[irrational]] beliefs. He has appeared on television to expose as frauds [[psychics]] and [[mediums]] who charge fees for their services. As a [[personality]], Dawkins appears{{Fact|date=May 2008}} to some<ref>Peter S Williams: [http://www.arn.org/docs/williams/pw_comparingdawkinsflew.htm "'What do you believe is trues(sic) even though you cannot prove it?' – Comparing Dawkins' Blind Faith with Flew's Evidence"] on the "action research network" site ("providing accessible information on science, technology, and society from an intelligent design perspective"). Retrieved [[2008-05-30]]. Reproduced as Peter S Williams: [http://www.bethinking.org/resource.php?ID=166 "The Faith Based Dawkins: 'What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?' – Comparing Dawkins' Blind Faith with Flew's Evidence"] on the bethinking.org apologetics website of the [[Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship]] (UCCF), retrieved [[2008-05-30]]. Note that the original article does not use the technical terms "crusader" or "faith-based" or "belief systems" at all: let alone with reference to Professor Dawkins.</ref>
as a crusader against [[faith-based]] [[belief system]]s, and many of those who come under his scrutiny{{Who|date=March 2008}} come to criticize him and the concept of "memes". However, some doubters of memetics {{Who|date=March 2008}} challenge the concept of "memes" on a scholastic level and divorce their criticism of memetics from an ''[[argumentum ad hominem]]'' criticism of Dawkins and his personal views. Examples of the varying degrees of criticism of memetics include the following:
=== Lack of philosophical appeal ===
One might{{Or|date=March 2008}} regard the reduction of the highly complex nature of ideas (such as religion, politics, war, justice, and science itself) to a putatively one-dimensional series of memes as an [[abstraction]] and, as such, a process which does not increase one’s understanding. The highly interconnected, multi-layering of such ideas resists memetic simplification to an atomic or molecular form; as does the fact that each of our [[personal life|lives]] remains fully enmeshed and involved in such "memes". One cannot view memes through a microscope in the way one can detect genes. The levelling-off of all such interesting "memes" down to some neutralized molecular "substance" such as "meme-substance" would introduce a bias toward scientism and abandon the very thing that makes ideas interesting, richly available, and worth studying.<ref>Dieter Lohmar - "Truth", in Lester Embree, ''Encyclopedia of phenomenology'', Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997</ref><ref>Friedrich Nietzsche: ''On the Genealogy of Morals''. Translated by Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale. New York: Vintage, 1967.</ref>
Another philosophical criticism sees memetics as re-introducing, or re-enforcing, the classic pre-20th-century form of [[Cartesian dualism]], that of mind versus body. Memetics seeks to include in the overall science of evolution such a dualism in the form of meme/gene. This dualism remains tenable{{Fact|date=February 2007}}, but many prominent philosophers have criticised it widely and historians of philosophy often consider it on the wane.{{Facts|date=February 2007}} [[Wittgenstein]], in his critique of Cartesian dualism, ''[[Philosophical Investigations]]'', argued for the absurdity of positing two parallel worlds, one of "body stuff", the other of "mind stuff" whose interaction one does not (and perhaps can not) know. (See also Wittgenstein's [[private language argument]]).
However, in response to such criticism one might add that memeticists have started to see memes not as atomic but as complex interactors in an environment of other memes and physical entities, a development pre-figured perhaps in the theory of the [[Association of Ideas|association of ideas]] in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries {{Fact|date=February 2007}}. However, such a response would require memetics to prove it had some value to add to such complexity in order to prevent it falling into the same disuse as the theory of [[Association of Ideas|association of ideas]].
Memetics might counter the charge of dualism by noting [[Leibniz]]'s ''[[Monadology]]''. This provided a direct response to Cartesian dualism based on an indivisible unit, the monad. Memes resemble monads in that they lack physicality (not having shape, size, mass, charge or energy) and yet as a totality they account for reality. Taken together they form the sum of all experience at any given time. But this argument essentially becomes a [[solipsism|solipsistic]] exercise.
Against the charge of dualism, memeticists might counter that memes in fact supersede genetics, science itself then becoming just another meme that aims, not at the "Truth", as such, but at the useful.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} However, memetics would then have undermined its own truth and the history of its own arrival on the scene, thus becoming yet another [[ontotheology]].
=== Three variations on the meaning of a meme ===
# The least controversial claim suggests that memes provide a useful philosophical perspective with which to examine cultural evolution. Proponents of this view argue that considering cultural developments from a meme's eye view—''as if'' memes themselves acted (or through the actions of the people who carry them) to maximise their own replication and survival—can lead to useful insights and yield valuable predictions into how culture develops over time. Dawkins himself seems to have favoured this approach.{{Fact|date=June 2007}}
# Other theorists, such as [[Francis Heylighen]], have focused on the need to provide an empirical grounding for memetics in order for people to regard it as a real and useful [[scientific discipline]].{{Fact|date=June 2007}} Given the nebulous (and in many cases subjective) nature of many memes, providing such an empirical grounding has to date proved challenging.{{Fact|date=June 2007}} However, a study by [[Mikael Sandberg]], further elaborates the memetic approach to empirical studies of innovation-diffusion in organisations.<ref>Mikael Sandberg: [http://www.springerlink.com/content/f167130443387072/fulltext.html "The Evolution of IT Innovations in Swedish Organizations: A Darwinian Critique of ‘Lamarckian’ Institutional Economics"], ''Journal of Evolutionary Economics'' Volume 17, Number 1, February, 2007 (on-line 2006, retrieved [[2008-02-27]]; in print 2007)</ref>
# A third approach, exemplified by Dennett and by [[Susan Blackmore]] in her book ''[[The Meme Machine]]'' (1999),<ref>[[Susan Blackmore]]: ''[[The Meme Machine]]''. Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN 0-19-286212-X </ref> seeks to place memes at the centre of a [[naturalism (philosophy)|naturalistic]] [[theory of mind]] and of [[personal identity (philosophy)|personal identity]]. [[Evan Louis Sheehan]] uses the hierarchical model of [[cerebral cortex|cortical]] architecture proposed by [[Jeff Hawkins]] to develop such a memetic theory of mind in his book ''[[The Mocking Memes: A Basis for Automated Intelligence]]''.<ref> Evan Louis Sheehan: ''The Mocking Memes: A Basis for Automated Intelligence''. Authorhouse, 2006. ISBN 978-1425961602</ref>
It has been suggested{{Fact|date=March 2008}} that doubters of the existence of the [[meme]] embrace an [[anti-memeite]] position and clearly define that position with a word and develop a community or culture around that word.
Some prominent researchers in [[evolutionary psychology]] and [[anthropology]], including [[Scott Atran]], [[Dan Sperber]], [[Pascal Boyer]], [[John Tooby]] and others, argue the possibility of incompatibility between [[modularity of mind]] and memetics. On their view, minds structure certain communicable aspects of the ideas produced, and these communicable aspects generally trigger or elicit ideas in other minds through inference (to relatively rich structures generated from often low-fidelity input) and not high-fidelity replication or imitation. Atran discusses communication involving religious beliefs as a case in point. In one set of experiments, he asked religious people to write down on a piece of paper the meanings of the [[Ten Commandments]]. Despite the subjects' own expectations of consensus, interpretations of the commandments showed wide ranges of variation, with little evidence of consensus. In another experiment, normal subjects and autistic subjects interpreted ideological and religious sayings (for example, "Let a thousand flowers bloom" or "To everything there is a season"). Autistics showed a significant tendency to closely paraphrase and repeat content from the original statement (for example: "Don't cut flowers before they bloom"). Controls tended to infer a wider range of cultural meanings with little replicated content (for example: "Go with the flow" or "Everyone should have equal opportunity"). Only the autistic subjects—who lack inferential capacity normally associated with aspects of [[theory of mind]]—came close to functioning as "meme machines".<ref>Scott Atran, ''In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion'', New York, Oxford University Press, 2002, chapter 9 "The Trouble with Memes". ISBN 0195149300</ref>
To see such an argument for [[holism]] as against the kind of atomic reductionism allegedly implied by memetics, see [[Willard Van Orman Quine|Quine]]'s "[[Two Dogmas of Empiricism]]".<ref>Quine, W. V. O., 1952, "Two Dogmas of Empiricism", in ''From a Logical Point of View'': Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.</ref>
This central problem with the possibility of memes has an illustration in the inability of such a meme-reductionist proposal to afford an explanation of how memetics itself qualifies as a meme, or, further, how one could describe biological genetics as a rather successful meme current in 20th-century science. Either way memes fail. Providing such an explanation would remove the ground from which the idea of memes themselves arose{{Fact|date=March 2008}} and so empty memes of all meaning. Without such an explanation memes find themselves without reason, limited to cover all but science and memetics itself.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} Others have countered that meme-perspectives do not exclude talk of meaning, truth, or falsity as relevant.<ref>https://commerce.metapress.com/content/3m24l6jr37589gn1/resource-secured/?target=fulltext.pdf&sid=cvfavdrzwnlhdl55vxngqpax&sh=www.springerlink.com</ref>
=== Lack of a simple theory of inheritance mechanism ===
[[Genetics]] has a clear model explaining the storage and transmission of genes. Indeed, Richard Dawkins himself clearly discusses, in his book [[The Selfish Gene]], how patterns of DNA directly generate patterns of proteins that then combine to construct biological phenotypes—the physical bodies of living things. Those phenotypes have the means for replicating their defining patterns into sex cells for transmitting the patterns to offspring. Memetics, by contrast, [[as of 2007]] has no such commonly accepted model for the storage and transmission of memes.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} Memeticists typically assume that memetic "phenotypes" equate with memetic "genotypes"—that every individual believing in one god, for example, carries the same "monotheistic meme"—but do not propose a single well-defined mechanism by which memes are cognitively encoded or transmitted. This lack of rigor seems like a serious—and to critics, fatal—weakness in memetics relative to its genetic model.{{Fact|date=February 2007}} What are the "particulate" (discrete) patterns or entities that have the responsibility or ability to encode and transmit a meme?{{Or|date=April 2008}}
=== General response to criticisms ===
In response to these criticisms, memeticists might argue that as their discipline does not construe memes as "particulate" entities, they therefore parallel indirectly the entirety of existing evolutionary taxonomy. (For example, one would not preclude fish from the animal kingdom for their lack of lungs.){{Fact|date=February 2007}}
The author [[Evan Louis Sheehan]], on the other hand, does attempt to rigorously portray the cognitive representations of memes as "particulate" entities. He defines them as patterns captured in cortical hierarchies, identical in structure to what [[Jeff Hawkins]] proposes in his book ''[[On Intelligence]]'' (2004). Each hierarchy expresses a complex pattern that the brain-owner has automatically sensed and remembered, as a consequence of simple [[Hebbian learning]]. "Sensed patterns" captured in these cortical hierarchies can reflect anything from the shape of a tree to a commonly-performed pattern of behavior that routinely propagates through mimicry. A cortical hierarchy consists of a "molecular" entity, constructed from sub-hierarchies (as the pattern of a tree comprises the sub-patterns of leaves, branches and a trunk), which themselves ultimately comprise "atomic" entities — small, patterned combinations of sensory elements. Memes thus take on a "particulate" nature that allows their combination and re-combination in various ways. Sheehan, in his book ''[[The Mocking Memes: A Basis for Automated Intelligence]]'' builds a model of [[creative thinking]] around a rapidly-evolving Darwinian process of combining and re-combining various causal memes, which represent nothing more than remembered patterns of causality.
[[Evan Louis Sheehan|Sheehan]] describes a meme as any sort of pattern that serves as a template for its own replication. He suggests that an understanding of memetics requires a recognition of how such patterns get themselves automatically translated—according to the strict laws of physics—from substrate to substrate, as from patterns of light entering a human eye to patterns of neural excitations in the retina of that eye, to the Hebbian development of hierarchical patterns of neural connections in the cortex, and ultimately to patterns of muscle contractions that serve to mimic the witnessed behaviors of others.
Philosopher and [[cognitive science|cognitive scientist]] [[Daniel Dennett]], in a debate with theologian [[Alister McGrath]], has responded to criticism regarding the lack of rigor in the study of memetics by claiming that [[word]]s and similar means of spreading and holding ideas provide a clear model for the spread and storage of memes. [[Evan Louis Sheehan|Sheehan]] suggests the automatic translation of patterns among various substrates as critical to providing the means for spreading and holding patterns of words and ideas. For example, we speak words through vibrational patterns of the [[larynx]], which get translated to pressure waves in air, which then get translated to vibrations of a listener's ear drum, which then get translated to waves of cochlear fluid inside the inner ear, which then get translated to patterns of neural firings, which then get translated to patterns of neural connections, thereby establishing a memory of the spoken words in the listener's mind. Sheehan asserts that the constant flitting of memetic patterns from one substrate to another makes memes so difficult to pin down, as analogous to genes, but that the physical processes that translate memetic patterns from substrate to substrate exhibit an usually high level of fidelity.
According to [[Evan Louis Sheehan|Sheehan]], "automatic translations of patterns from substrate to substrate to substrate, and back again, provide looping pathways by which patterns can iteratively replicate, mutate and evolve." Sheehan claims that "many such looping pathways exist both within a single brain (to create an intelligent mind) and among many brains (to create culture, language and technology)."
Others{{Who|date=April 2008}} suggest that many of the criticisms of memetic theory stem from confusion over what the term "gene" refers to. In [[microbiology]], microbiologists see a "gene" as a [[cistron]], a specific region of [[DNA]]. The analogy between memes and genes, however, relates to an [[evolutionary biology|evolutionary biologist]]'s gene, an abstract replicatory unit of information. People{{Who|date=April 2008}} who think of a gene as an actual visible piece of DNA often criticise the memetic analogy because of this. An example of such an "abstract replicatory unit of information" might code for the color of one's hair or for the length of a digit.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
== Memetic accounts of religion ==
Memetics regards [[religion]] itself as memetic, and [http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Catalano/quotes.shtml Richard Dawkins] has often discussed religion.
[[Evangelism|Evangelistic]] religious movements act to swell the reach of their faith-meme.<ref>See for example: [http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/background-information/missionary-program "Missionary Program"]; retrieved [[2008-01-27]]</ref> [[Judaism]], [[Christianity]], [[Islam]] and [[Mormonism]] (and their descendants) have all developed through variation, modification and memetic re-combination from a shared [[monotheism|monotheistic]] meme: [[Zoroastrianism]] appears to have functioned as an important and widely-shared religious ancestor,<ref>See Lawrence Mills, ''Our Own Religion in Ancient Persia'', Chicago, 1913</ref> contributing through Judaism to Christianity, Islam and their many derivative religions.<ref>See for example the discussion and quotations in http://www.zarathushtra.com/z/article/influenc.htm</ref> Some of these movements devote a large amount of time and energy to evangelistic activity.
Many of the world's most successful religions demonstrate memetic modification over time—the theologies of the 21st century differ to a greater or lesser extent from the theologies of previous centuries.<ref>See [[History of theology]] for accounts of the varying emphases and interests of theologians in various traditions over time.</ref>
In [[Western world|Western countries]], [[universities]] evolved from medieval religious institutions devoted to learning. Of the nine [[colonial colleges]] in the British colonies of [[North America]], eight had affiliations with religious institutions. Many US colleges separated themselves from their seminaries, because the [[First Amendment to the United States Constitution]] prevents federal funding of religious organizations. One can think of American academia as an offshoot religion that eliminated less adaptive memes (beliefs in the supernatural) in response to a selective pressure (funding restrictions).{{Who|date=August 2007}}
A tendency exists in memetics to disparage religious memes{{Fact|date=February 2007}}, beginning at least as early as Dawkins' openly-expressed atheism. Dawkins in ''[[The God Delusion]]'' (2006) calls all religious memes "mind viruses". Some compare this process to a [[scenario]] where the action of a virus (here a religion or a "bundle" of religious memes) proves ineffective and maladaptive if it kills its host(s), or to where the presence of less-harmful bacteria on the skin prevent infection by more-harmful organisms{{Who|date=August 2007}}. For example, popular [[Christianity]] forbids both [[murder]] and [[suicide]], and its precise definitions of [[Christian heresy|heresy]] ensure that properly-educated Christians have difficulty in accepting new religions or new viewpoints which advocate such actions.{{Who|date=August 2007}}
Susan Blackmore has made a [http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Chapters/awaken.html case] that the study of [[Zen]] [[meditation]] in itself comprises a process of meme "pruning", i.e., a means to remove experiential clichés that reduce the value of life. This has not exempted [[Zen]] itself from serving as a source of highly mobile memes, such as "the sound of one hand clapping" [[koan]] or exclaiming "[[Mu (negative)|mu]]".<!-- please review this statement[...]it is not clear at all -->
[[Daniel Dennett]] used the idea of religion as a meme (or as a set of memes) as a basis for much of his analysis of religion in his book ''[[Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon]]''.
Fundamentalist Christianity has associated a particular set of politico-social ideas/memeplexes with a separate set of religious ideas/memeplexes that have "replicated" very effectively for many centuries—notions such as "[[Render unto Caesar...|render unto Caesar]]", individual [[conscience]], or punishment/reward in an [[afterlife]]. For other examples of piggybacking involving religious memes, note the conversion-histories of the [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungarian]]s and of [[Kievan Rus']]: adoption of Catholicism and Orthodoxy respectively entailed perceived cultural, political and diplomatic benefits and adherence to perceived mainstream civilization.<ref>Compare for example the discussion in the article [[Christianization of Kievan Rus']].</ref> Personal and intangible experiences which might seem "above" memes may rather have subconscious roots in memes absorbed during a lifetime, as [[depth psychology]] might suggest.
== Memetic accounts of science ==
The [[scientific method]] offers a body of social and experimental techniques which, given certain preconditions—a free press for the circulation of information, a large number of people prepared to see the universe as a mechanism subject to general regularities which humans can observe, describe and model through repeatable experiments and/or observations—acts highly virulently, spreading quickly through an educated population as journals circulate and blogs proliferate. By demonstrating its success at making predictions, science as a practice can make itself more attractive to potential converts.{{Who|date=August 2007}} Whether or not experimenters can necessarily verify them, ideas and attitudes—those which scientists tend to hold or those which feel aesthetically pleasing in combination with scientific discoveries—can propagate themselves in societies where science has a high status by the process of meme piggybacking.{{Or|date=September 2007}}
Furthermore, one can view the [[scientific method]] as a successful meta-memetical means of selecting those memeplexes best suited for explaining observable physical processes, through its mechanism (parallel to the [[evolutionary algorithm]] used in computer science) of providing standardized methods for creating and evaluating competing populations of solutions to a given problem.{{Who|date=August 2007}}
== Memetic explanations of racism ==
{{Refimprove|date=September 2007}}
When regarded as non-conscious replicators (much like viruses), individual memes generally lack moral goodness or badness.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} However, the behaviors that memes generate in individuals and groups can have moral implications. History furnishes many examples of the moral implications of racist/ethnic/class memes when they interact with politics, such as the [[Rwandan Genocide]] of 1994.{{Or|date=September 2007}} [[Racism]] provides an example of a common meme: an ideology that has come to separate people, causing the deaths of some targets or practitioners (the latter due to backlash) and threatening the [[personal life|lives]] of those who do not conform with racist norms.{{Or|date=September 2007}} Once introduced into a culture, memes evolve (note [[antisemitism]] as a form of [[xenophobia]]) and spread through society, sometimes becoming both harmful and attractive so that they spread like a [[virus]].(Ref.: 1994 G. Burchett{{Fact|date=August 2007}})
In ''[http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/cs.htm Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology]'',<ref>J M Balkin: ''Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology'' New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998. ISBN 0300072880</ref> [[Jack Balkin]] argued that memetic processes can explain many of the most familiar features of [[ideology|ideological]] thought. His theory of "cultural software" maintained that memes form [[narrative]]s, networks of cultural associations, metaphoric and [[metonymy| metonymic]] models, and a variety of different mental structures. Some of these structures can help generate racist and anti-Semitic beliefs, by making this kind of belief spread fast and wide.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} Conversely, some memes can have moral implications that most observers might deem positive, such as the meme of anti-racism, which tends/aims to generate behaviors of [[tolerance]].{{Or|date=September 2007}}
== Memetic accounts of personality ==
Memeticists often define an individual's [[mind]] as a "playground for memes" or as an "ecology of memes", where the different memes that have colonized that mind at different times interact with each other. For example, when a mind successfully infected by the memeplex for religion X becomes exposed to the memeplex for religion Y, memeplex X may repulse memeplex Y: X can block Y from infecting the mind (for instance through use of such memetic components as the meme that "all other religions apart from X are [[evil]]").{{Or|date=September 2007}}
In a person's history, [[language]] provides the first and most important memetic infection.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} Indeed, memeticians generally regard language as a memetically-evolved phenomenon. For example, even at the level of animals, many species have evolved particular cries to convey different meanings, such as "danger", "hungry", "aroused", "go away" or "come here". Experiments can verify the memetic nature of the cries of these species, showing for example that the cries do not arise when humans raise the animals concerned: they do not generate the cries by instinct, but learn them from other animals. Human language, as a memetically-evolved [[tool]], can serve not only to communicate concepts between humans, but also to combine low-[[abstraction]] concepts into higher-abstraction ones. This combination/abstraction process, seen memetically, constitutes ''creative breeding'' of memes, where the interaction of several memes results in the birth of a new, combined meme. For example, the mind of Richard Dawkins saw the creative breeding of its memes for "replicator", "culture", and "mind", and this breeding gave birth to the new meme of "meme".{{Or|date=September 2007}}
After humans become infected with the memeplex for language—generally during babyhood—they get infected with a series of higher-abstraction memes, and especially values-memes.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} Depending on the [[education]] received by the person, the lessons drawn from [[experience]], and the surrounding cultural materials (tales, songs, books, etc), a certain ecology and history of meme-infection and interaction builds up within that person’s mind. Memes generate behaviors in their host—either spoken or acted behaviors. Because each person has an individual memetic infection and interaction history, there emerge singular behavior patterns. We conventionally refer to what memeticists regard as meme-generated patterns of behavior as a person's [[Wiktionary:personality|personality]].{{Or|date=September 2007}}
== Memetic engineering ==
{{main|Memetic engineering}}
Memetic engineering (a term was coined by [[Leveious Rolando]], [[Gibran Burchett]], and [[John Sokol]].{{Fact|date=March 2008}}) consists of the process of developing memes, through [[meme-splicing]] and memetic [[synthesis]], with the intent of altering the behavior of others. It involves creating and developing theories or [[ideology|ideologies]] based on an analytical study of [[society|societies]], their ways of thinking and the evolution of the minds that comprise them. Attempts at [[Artificial Meme-Phrase Creation]] have not met with noted success, though apocryphal stories tell of the putative origins of these sorts of memes.<ref>[http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwordorigins/quiz?view=uk AskOxford: What is the origin of the word 'quiz'?<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Sometimes people modify and fabricate memes consciously, even intentionally (think the self-image of [[advertising agency|advertising agencies]], for example—though some argue that the intention comes from the memes).{{Who|date=August 2007}} This would help to explain how rapidly, extensively and usefully memetic evolution has functioned in and for culture.{{Or|date=September 2007}} People apply many ever-evolving meme-based systems of [[analysis]] and [[error-correction]] to all information flowing in and out.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} Just as genetic material has developed gene-based error-correction models, memetic systems have "found" it advantageous to associate with meme-based error-correction models.{{Fact|date=August 2007}}
However, attempting to popularize a fabricated meme or an unproven theory often results in a backlash against said meme: the originators of a meme may appear to have a hidden agenda, as in the case of [[intelligent design]], the meme of which some perceived as an apparently scientific relabeling of [[creationism]].<ref>See for example Mooney, Criss. ''The Republican War on Science''. NY: Basic Books, 2005.</ref>
== Memetic evolution ==
Evolution requires not only [[inheritance]] and natural selection but also variation, and memes also exhibit this property. Ideas may undergo changes in transmission which accumulate over time. Generations of hosts pass on these changes in the [[phenotype]] (the information in brains or in retention systems).{{Fact|date=August 2007}} In other words, unlike genetic evolution, memetic evolution can show both [[Charles Darwin|Darwinian]] and [[Jean-Baptiste Lamarck|Lamarckian]] traits. For example, [[folk tale]]s and [[mythology|myth]]s often become embellished in the retelling to make them more memorable or more appropriate and therefore more impressed listeners have a greater likelihood of retelling them, complete with accumulating embellishments that may serve to modify human behavior.{{Or|date=September 2007}} More modern examples appear in the various [[urban legend]]s and [[hoax]]es—such as the [[Goodtimes virus]] warning—that circulate on the [[Internet]].
Dawkins observed that [[culture]]s can evolve in much the same way that [[population]]s of [[organism]]s evolve. Various ideas pass from one [[generation]] to the next; such ideas may either enhance or detract from the survival of the people who obtain those ideas, or influence the survival of the ideas themselves. This process can affect which of those ideas will survive for passing on to future generations. For example, a certain culture may have unique designs and methods of [[tool]]-making that another culture may not have; therefore, the culture with the more effective methods may prosper more than the other culture, ''[[ceteris paribus]]''. This leads to a higher proportion of the overall population adopting the more effective methods as time passes. Each tool-design thus acts somewhat similarly to a biological [[gene]] in that some populations have it and others do not, and the meme's function directly affects the presence of the design in future generations. Similarly, like the biological evolutionary process, cultures can retain memes that once served a purpose during one epoch or era as [[vestigial]] memes — note the survival of [[astrology]]. Such [[evolutionary misdirection]] resembles (debatably) the survival of the [[vermiform appendix]], or of [[wisdom teeth]] in humans.
== Propagation of memes ==
Memes have as an important characteristic their [[propagation]] through [[imitation]], a concept introduced by the French [[sociologist]] [[Gabriel Tarde]].{{Fact|date=October 2007}} Imitation involves copying the [[observation|observed]] behaviour of another individual. Typically imitators copy behaviour from observing other humans, but they may also copy from an inanimate source, such as from a book or from a [[musical score]]. Imitation may depend on brains sufficiently powerful to assess the key aspects of the imitated behavior (what to copy and why) as well as its potential benefits.{{Fact|date=August 2007}}
Researchers have observed memetic copying in just a few species on [[Earth]], including [[Hominidae|hominid]]s, [[dolphin]]s<ref>
"Vocal learning in whistle production has been demonstrated in bottlenose dolphins ..." {{PDFlink|[http://www.dolphincommunicationproject.org/DissPDFs/Chapter4.pdf Atlantic Spotted Dolphin vocalizations, chapter Delphinid vocalizations]|797 KB}}, page 133 — retrieved [[2007-08-29]].</ref> and [[bird]]s (which learn how to [[singing|sing]] by imitating their [[parent]]s<ref>Compare for example Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye (1988): "Vocal Development", http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Vocal_Development.html</ref>).
When imitation first evolved in the animal [[ancestor]]s of humans, it proved itself a valuable [[skill]] for [[learning]], which increased an individual's ability to reproduce genetically.{{Or|date=September 2007}} Some have speculated that [[sexual selection]] of the best imitators further drove a genetic increase in the ability of brains to imitate well.{{Who|date=August 2007}}
Memetics suggests that memes have the potential for a much more lasting effect than genes: humans continue to quote prophets, popes and teachers who had no known lineal blood-descendants. Most organisms pass their genes on to their offspring sexually, but with every generation the genetic contribution of a given ancestor halves—so that a person only has a quarter of their grandfather's personal genes. [[Susan Blackmore]] has evaluated the legacy of [[Socrates]]. Since the 5th century BC, Socrates' genes have become thoroughly diluted (dispersed); however, his memes still have a profound effect on modern thought and on [[as of 2008|contemporary]] [[philosophy|philosophical]] discourse.
In [[as of 2007|modern times]], the advent of the Internet—and more specifically of email—has provided memes with a high-fidelity propagation medium that enables highly prolific memes to propagate quickly. For example, chain-emails furnish a significant instance: in-depth studies have examined their evolution and mutation based on their differential survival rate.{{Or|date=September 2007}} Paper-based chain-letters, predecessors to this meme-distribution net, have also attracted study,<ref>"Chain Letters and Evolutionary Histories", Charles H. Bennett, Ming Li and Bin Ma. ''Scientific American'', June 2003.</ref> but they have a lower propagation-rate due to the higher copying effort, and a higher mutation-rate may have occurred due to manual transcription or degraded photocopying, thus potentially reducing their lifespan. It seems plausible that the first email chain-letters started when recipients transcribed paper-based chain-letters to email{{Who|date=August 2007}}, suggesting that memes can move from one propagation medium to another (more efficient) one.{{Or|date=September 2007}}
== Evolutionary influences on memes ==
If one accepts the memetic description, it still remains to single out which memes have good potential for spreading. One can make an analogy with biology.{{Who|date=August 2007}} To be able to say something about the spread of a gene in birds that affect their wings ornithologists need to know about both population genetics and aerodynamics. Similarly, memeticists need to complement the description of memes with a description of what makes a meme easily absorbable by people other than the original carrier.
Only the number of extant copies (and where those copies reside) determine the measurable success of a gene or of a meme. A strong (but not complete) correlation exists between genes that do well and genes that have a positive effect on the organism which contains those genes. And if we can restrict [[attention]] to memes normally interpreted as statements of [[fact]], then a correlation emerges between those memes that do well and those that reflect [[reality]].{{Fact|date=August 2007}} However, some genes and memes do survive which owe their success to other factors. Similarly, a correlation exists between successful memes of a [[technology|technological]]/[[economics|economic]] nature and those that help the [[world economy|economy]] (such as [[slavery]] and [[free markets]] (each in their day), for instance).
A gene's success in a body may stem from its attempt to bypass the normal sexual lottery by making itself present in more than 50% of [[zygote]]s in an organism.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} Some genes find other ways of having themselves transmitted between [[cell (biology)|cell]]s. Hence multiple factors influence the evolution of genes — not just the success of the species as a whole. Similarly the evolutionary pressures on memes include much more than just [[truth]] and economic success. Evolutionary pressures may include the following:
# ''Experience'': If a meme does not correlate with an individual's [[experience]], then that individual has a reduced likelihood of remembering that meme.
# ''Pleasure/Pain'': If a meme results in more pleasure or less pain for its host then the host will have a greater likelihood of remembering it.
# ''Fear/Bribery'': If a meme constitutes a threat then people may become [[fear|frightened]] into believing it. Similarly, if a meme promises some future benefit then people may incline to believe it. The memes "if you do X you will burn in hell" and "do Y and you will go to heaven" provide examples. Memes which pass on the fear of a threat, of the likelihood or effectiveness of a threat, that "something will happen if you do such and such a thing", have a high likelihood of success, and may therefore replicate and remain in the meme-pool. They may assist in this way in the survival of a thought, a theme or a philosophy within a [[community]].
# ''Censorship'': If an [[organisation]] destroys any retention-systems containing a particular meme or otherwise controls the usage of that meme, then that meme may suffer a selective disadvantage.
# ''Economics'': If people or organisations with economic influence exhibit a particular meme, then the meme has a greater likelihood of benefiting from a greater audience. If a meme tends to increase the riches of an individual holding it, then that meme may spread because of imitation. Such memes might include "Hard work is good" and "Put number one first".
# ''Distinction'': If the meme enables hearers to recognize and respect tellers (as [[leadership|leader]]s, intelligent people, insightful, etc.), then the meme has a greater chance of spreading. The erstwhile receivers will want to become themselves tellers of the same meme (or of an evolved/mutated version). Thus élite knowledge can provide a promotion to [[élite]] status.
Memes, like genes, do not purposely do or want anything—they either get replicated or not. Some meme systems have negative effects on the host or on their host society ([[revenge]] killings, for example), but humans generally have a symbiotic relationship with these abstract entities.{{Who|date=August 2007}}
Memes do not mutate in an exclusively passive way. The brain inhabited by a meme system can carry out a sort of active modification of a meme. One could draw an analogy with a cell's error-correction systems, but they clearly function quite differently.{{Who|date=August 2007}} People create and modify memes almost continuously.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} One can modify, manipulate, and create meme systems in thought, for instance through internal dialogue.{{Who|date=August 2007}} As soon as one opens one's mouth and says something (or does something) that one has not copied (but that others can copy), one has unleashed a novel meme.{{Or|date=September 2007}} Thus, one could conclude{{Who|date=August 2007}} that we all perform the role of a memetic engineer to some degree (even if not consciously).{{Fact|date=August 2007}}
This seems especially evident in modern society{{Or|date=September 2007}}, more notably in the scientific and philosophical realms and in the [[entertainment industry]].{{Who|date=August 2007}} It has become standard practice for scientists and philosophers alike to assemble memetic systems and to question their philosophical and [[empiricism|empirical]] integrity. On perceiving a flaw, one may seek [[theoretical]] ([[mathematical]]/[[thought experiments]]/[[logic]]/[[Scientific method|analysis]]) or [[empirical]] ([[experiment]]al/[[observation]]al) resolution. This happens in large part due to the influence of some of the more "modern" philosophers of the past. Over the last few hundred (or thousand) years, a "philosophy" or [[paradigm]] has evolved and developed which benefits the societies in which many embrace it.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} That philosophy includes the [[moral]] and scientific obligation to take nothing for granted and always to question any new [[information]] one perceives. People following this tradition have transformed the memetic base of modern science and philosophy. These people include [[Zoroaster]], [[Socrates]], [[Aristotle]], [[Plato]], [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo]], [[Isaac Newton|Newton]], [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]], [[Albert Einstein]], [[Karl Marx]], [[Benjamin Franklin]] and [[Karl Popper]].{{Verify source|date=August 2007}} Science accepts nothing as true unless empirical evidence and observation suggests such "truth" strongly and consistently. This entire procedure adheres to a meme-system that has evolved to the point of rejecting almost any absolute truth-claim.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} This meme-system now includes such novel analytical [[paradigm]]s as the [[scientific method]] and [[John Dewey|Dewey]]'s [[decision making|Decision-making]] model (among many other meme-based systems) to help distinguish useful (or truthful) meme-systems from "bad" ones.
[[Francis Heylighen]] of the [[Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies]] has postulated what he calls "memetic selection criteria". These criteria opened the way to a specialized field of applied memetics to find out if these selection criteria could stand the test of [[quantitative analysis|quantitative analyses]].
The [[cultural materialism (anthropology)|cultural materialism]] view in [[anthropology]] holds that the evolutionary pressures of economy and [[ecology]] explain many aspects of human culture.{{Who|date=August 2007}} For example, the [[taboo food and drink|food taboos]] sometimes enshrined in religions—such as the concepts of [[sacred cow]]s, [[kosher]] and [[halal]]—would have prospered because they allowed the believing population to (say) live more [[hygiene|hygienically]] and thus survive longer than non-believers in environments possibly more hostile to survival.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} A migration or a change of the economic [[infrastructure]] could render the [[taboo]] neutral or even adverse.{{Who|date=August 2007}}
== Resistance to certain memes ==
[[Karl Popper]] advocated memetic caution in the strongest possible terms: "The survival value of [[Intelligence (trait)|intelligence]] is that it allows us to extinct a bad idea, before the idea extincts us."{{Fact|date=February 2007}}<!-- If this is a translation, then "extinguish" would be a better word. -->
Resistance to violent and destructive courses of action has formed a common meme that can guide human cultural and [[cognition|cognitive]] evolution away from disastrous paths{{Who|date=August 2007}}—for instance the [[United States of America|U.S.]] and [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics|USSR]] stockpiled but did not deploy [[nuclear weapons]] in action in the period of the [[Cold War]]. Some cultures can consider [[ignorance]] a virtue—in particular, ignorance of certain temptations that the culture believes would prove disastrous if pursued by many individuals. See for example the operation of the ''[[Index librorum prohibitorum]]''.
The [[Internet]], perhaps the ultimate meme-[[vector (biology)|vector]] to date{{Who|date=August 2007}}, seems to host both sides of this debate{{Or|date=September 2007}}. Opposition to use of the Internet can stem from any number of memes: from ethics to intent to ability to resist [[Hacker (computer security)|hacking]] or [[pornography]].{{Who|date=August 2007}}
The [[Principia Cybernetica]] project maintains a [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMLEX.html lexicon of memetics concepts], comprising a list of different types of memes. It also refers to an essay by [[Jaron Lanier]], ''[http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/lanier/lanier_p1.html The ideology of cybernetic totalist intellectuals]'', which criticises "[[meme totalist]]s" who assert memes over bodies.
== Memetic virus exchange ==
One controversial application of the "selfish meme" parallel results in the idea that certain collections of memes can act as "memetic viruses": collections of ideas that behave in the manner of independent [[life form|life-form]]s which continue to get passed on — even at the expense of their hosts—simply because of their success at getting passed on.{{Who|date=August 2007}} Some observers have suggested that [[evangelism|evangelical]] [[religion]]s and [[cult]]s behave in this way; so by including the act of passing on their [[belief]]s as a moral [[virtue]], other beliefs of the religion also get passed along—even if they do not provide particular direct benefits to the believer.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Others maintain that the wide prevalence of human adoption of religious ideas provides evidence to suggest that such ideas offer some ecological, sexual, ethical or moral value; otherwise memetic evolution would long ago have selected against such ideas.{{Who|date=August 2007}} For example, some religions urge [[peace]] and [[cooperation|co-operation]] among their followers ("Thou shalt not murder") which may possibly tend to promote the biological survival of the social groups that carry these memes. However, the idea of [[group selection]] stands on shaky ground (to say the least) in the field of genetics. Accordingly, some consider the idea of selection of ideas beneficial to the group exclusively as unlikely.{{Or|date=September 2007}}<!-- Certainly religious promoters claim such value for following their rules or principles — but how does that relate to what they regard as divine? -->{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
Dawkins notes that one can distinguish a biological virus from its host's normal genetic material by the fact that it can propagate alone, without the propagation of the entire genetic corpus of the host—or half of it, in the case of [[diploid]] [[sexual reproduction]]; thus, a virus can "sabotage" the host's other genes. This applies to memes in the sense that a meme that requires the success of its hosts has a greater likelihood of favouring the interests of these hosts than does a meme capable of succeeding even if each host quickly dies.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} For example, the commonplace meme which encourages people to wash their hands after they use the toilet or before handling food, and which reminds others to do the same, does not appear harmful. In contrast, a meme telling people to quit their jobs, abandon their families, and run around spreading the meme seems quite [[virulence|virulent]].{{Who|date=August 2007}}{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
=== Reproductive isolation in meme "speciation" ===
In traditional [[population genetics]] the normal [[genetic variation]], [[Natural selection#Types of selection|genetic selection]], and [[genetic drift]] do not lead to the formation of a new species without some form of "reproductive isolation". Thus in order to split a single [[species]] into two species, the two subpopulations of the original species must ultimately lose their ability to interbreed, which would normally maintain their [[heterogeneity]]. However, once separated, natural selection and/or mere [[genetic drift]] acting on the normal genetic variation in the two subspecies will eventually change enough characteristics of the two subgroups to preclude them interbreeding, which (by a common definition of what constitutes a species) means that they will comprise two different species. {{Fact|date=February 2007}} Examples of reproductive isolation include geographical isolation, where a [[catastrophism|suddenly-appearing]] mountain range or river separates two subgroups; temporal isolation (isolation by time), where one subgroup becomes entirely [[diurnal animal|diurnal]] in its habits while the other becomes entirely [[nocturnal]]; or even just "behavioral" isolation, as seen in [[wolf|wolves]] and [[dog|domestic dogs]]: they ''could'' interbreed, biologically speaking, but normally they do not.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
A similar phenomenon can occur with memes.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} Normally, the population of individuals having a meme in their [[consciousness]] contains sufficient internal variation and mixes enough to keep a given meme relatively intact (although it covers a wide range of variations).{{Verify source|date=August 2007}} Should that population become split, however, without sufficient contact for the two different subgroups of variations of the meme to [[Genetic equilibrium|equilibrate]], eventually each group will evolve its own version of that meme, each version differing sufficiently from that of the other group to appear as a distinct entity.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
The ''Kellerman'' meme provides an example of this occurring on the Internet.{{Or|date=September 2007}} A search of the web and/or Usenet for the word 'Kellerman' will turn up many citations, describing at great length the behavior of a "Dr. Arthur Kellerman", who, with the willing assistance of the [[Centers for Disease Control]] and the [[public health|public-health]] [[lobbying|lobby]], purportedly fabricated studies in order to implicate [[firearm]]s (and by extension their owners) as a menace to [[public safety]], for the purposes of [[statism|statist]] control of the population. The authors of these pages and postings describe purported machinations, "[[junk science]]", a subsequent recantation by Dr. "Kellerman", and the use of his work by proponents of [[gun control]].{{Fact|date=February 2007}}<!--USENET is not a reliable source for facts, but it can provide examples of memes and memetic process galore-->. Compare the work of the differently spelled scientist [[Arthur Kellermann]].
The original meme of Kellermann and his work on gun-related violent [[injury]] has generated a new meme ("Dr. Kellerman is an evil lying gun-grabbing enemy of [[Freedom (political)|freedom]]") by the classic genetic phenomenon of a [[mutagenesis|deletion mutation]].{{Fact|date=August 2007}} The sub-population involved had strongly negative attitudes towards Kellermann's work as well as a lack of firsthand familiarity with his studies and [[career]].{{Fact|date=August 2007}} Because of the "reproductive isolation" caused by the total non-intersection of the results of searches for "Kellerman" and "Kellermann", the Kellerman-meme drifted even further in the direction of negativity, unchecked by facts related to the real Kellermann.{{Fact|date=August 2007}} As this group encounters new individuals of similar general outlook, they introduce new recruits to the "Kellerman" lore only, and go on to produce their own websites and postings furthering the rapid progress of this meme.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
(This phenomenon also demonstrates two other features of memes—the "meme-complex" (memeplex) as a set of mutually-assisting "co-memes" which have co-evolved a symbiotic relationship, and the [http://www.istop.com/~ggrant/memetics/memelex.html "Villain vs. Victim"] infection strategy.)
== Expansion of concept ==
The propagation of memes follows a phenomenon that also appears in many other fields of study.{{Fact|date=November 2007}} One can expand the same principles to include all material patterns as well, in the sense that every material pattern in the universe exists to an extent proportional to its frequency of appearance, longevity and ability to reproduce (or to allow copying by others).{{Or|date=December 2007}}
The material [[pattern (disambiguation)|pattern]] "shoes", for instance, reproduces dependently on the meme of how to create shoes, which in turn depends on its ability to benefit human beings. Nevertheless one can view it{{Or|date=November 2007}}, like the material patterns it depends on, as a "selfish" material pattern, only benefiting human beings to such extent as to favour its own rate of reproduction by human agency.
== See also ==
<!-- Please keep this list alphabeticised. Thanks! -->
{{Col-begin}}
{{Col-3}}
* [[Bandwagon effect]]
* [[Chain letter]]
* [[Consensus reality]]
* [[Creativity techniques]]
* [[Cultural evolution]]
* [[Culture jamming]]
* [[Demagoguery]]
* [[Diffusion of innovations]]
* [[Dual inheritance theory]]
* [[Epigenetics]]
* [[Evolutionary linguistics]]
* [[Figure of speech]]
* [[Framing (social sciences)]]
{{Col-3}}
* [[Groupthink]]
* [[Herd behavior]]
* [[History of ideas]]
* [[Hive mind]]
* [[Hundredth Monkey]]
* [[Hypodermic needle model]]
* [[Inductive reasoning|induction]]
* [[Internet meme]]
* [[Memespace]]
* [[Memesphere]]
* [[Memetics]]
* [[Meme pool]]
* [[Metameme]]
* [[Paradigm shift]]
* [[Propaganda]]
{{Col-3}}
* [[Rhetoric]]
* [[Rumor]]
* [[Self-replication]]
* [[Semiotics]]
* [[Snowclone]]
* [[Social constructionism]]
* [[Social Osmosis]]
* [[Three Hares]]
* [[Trope (literature)]]
* [[Trope (philosophy)]]
* [[Urban legend]]
* [[Zeitgeist]]
{{Col-end}}
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== Literature ==
<div class="references-small">
# [[Keith Henson|Henson, H. Keith]]: [http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/Authors/Engineering/Henson-HK/MMaP.html ''Memes Meta-Memes and Politics''], 1988
# [[Keith Henson|Henson, H. Keith]] and Arel Lucas: [http://www.operatingthetan.com/1990-memes.txt "Memes, Evolution, and Creationism"], 1989
# [[Inayat Khan|Khan, Pir Hazrat Inayat]]: ''The Music of Life'', Omega Uniform Edition, 2nd edition, 1993, trade paperback: 353 pages, ISBN 0-930872-38-X. An introduction to the ''muwakkals'' (Eastern memes).
# [[Daniel Dennett|Dennett, Daniel]]: ''[[Consciousness Explained]]'', Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1991. ISBN 0316180653
# [[Daniel Dennett|Dennett, Daniel]]: ''[[Darwin's Dangerous Idea|Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life]]'', 1995
# [[Richard Brodie|Brodie, Richard]]: ''Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme''. Integral Press, September 1995, 251 pages, ISBN 0-9636001-1-7
# [[Howard Bloom|Bloom, Howard]]: ''The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History''. Atlantic Monthly Press, February 1997, 480 pages, ISBN 0-87113-664-3
# [[Susan Blackmore|Blackmore, Susan]]: ''The Meme Machine''. [http://www.oup.co.uk/ Oxford University Press], 1999, hardcover ISBN 0-19-850365-2, trade paperback ISBN 0-9658817-8-4, May 2000, ISBN 0-19-286212-X
# Fog, Agner: ''[http://www.agner.org/cultsel/ Cultural Selection]''. Dordrecht: Kluwer 1999. ISBN 0-7923-5579-2.
# [[Aaron Lynch|Lynch, Aaron]]: ''Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads Through Society''. Basic Books, 1999, ISBN 0-465-08467-2
## Review: [http://zompist.com/memes.html "The new pseudo-science of memes"]
# [[Neal Stephenson|Stephenson, Neal]]: ''[[Snow Crash]]''. Bantam Doubleday Dell, reprint, 2000, trade paperback: 440 pages, ISBN 0-553-38095-8 (science-fiction novel about a metavirus engineered to activate as a meme in the brain, spreading through a number of vectors such as actual physical viruses, images, and others)
# [[Tim Flannery|Flannery, Tim]]: "Eyes at the back of your head: How Richard Semon's memes gave way to Richard Dawkins's memes". ''Times Literary Supplement'', [[October 19]], [[2001]]
# [[Scott Atran|Atran, Scott]]: "The Trouble with Memes", ''Human Nature'' 12, 4 (2001), S. 351 ff. [http://jeannicod.ccsd.cnrs.fr/documents/disk0/00/00/01/23/ijn_00000123_00/ijn_00000123_00.doc]
# [[Robert Aunger|Aunger, Robert]]: ''The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think''. Free Press, 2002, hardcover ISBN 0-7432-0150-7
# [[Robert Aunger|Aunger, Robert]]: ''Darwinizing culture: the status of memetics as a science''. Oxford University Press, 2000, New-York ISBN 0-19-263244-2
# [[Keith Henson|Henson, H. Keith]]: "Sex, Drugs, and Cults. An evolutionary psychology perspective on why and how cult memes get a drug-like hold on people, and what might be done to mitigate the effects", ''The Human Nature Review '' 2002 Volume 2: 343-355 [http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/cults.html]
# H. [[Keith Henson]]: [http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/4/17/194059/296 "Evolutionary Psychology, Memes and the Origin of War."]
# Lanier, Jaron: "[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Annotations/DEFAULT.14.html The Ideology of Cybernetic Totalist Intellectuals]", an essay which criticises "meme totalists" who assert memes over bodies.
# [http://www.jom-emit.org/ ''Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission'']
# ''[[Principia Cybernetica]]'' holds a [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMLEX.html lexicon of memetics concepts], comprising a list of different types of memes.
# A list of [http://users.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Memetics/ memetics publications on the web]
# [[Steven Ericsson-Zenith|Ericsson-Zenith, Steven]]: ''[http://www.what-it-all-means.com Memeiosis]'' , a formal characterization of memes.
# [[Hokky Situngkir|Situngkir, Hokky]]: ''[http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00003471/ Culture as Complex Adaptive System]'', formal interplays between memetics and cultural analysis.
# Chielens, Klaas: ''[http://memetics.chielens.net/master/index.html The Viral Aspects of Language: A Quantitative Research of Memetic Selection Criteria]''
# Distin, Kate: ''[http://www.theselfishmeme.co.uk The Selfish Meme: A Critical Reassessment]''. Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-521-60627-6
# [[Victor Hugo|Hugo, Victor]]: ''Notre Dame de Paris'' (translated into English as ''[[The Hunchback of Notre Dame]]''), 1831
# [[Daniel Dennett|Dennett, Daniel]]: ''[[Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon]]'', 2006
# [[William Gibson|Gibson, William]]: ''[[Pattern Recognition (novel)|''Pattern Recognition'']]'', page 95, "Word-of-mouth meme thing. We don't really know what it does, yet.", 2003.
<!-- the relevance of the following remains obscure:
# ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', 1998, and ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty]]'', 2001, by [[Konami Corporation]].
-->
</div>
== External links ==
* [http://nextmodernitylibrary.blogspirit.com/archive/2006/07/18/la-theorie-des-memes-pourquoi-nous-nous-imitons-les-uns-les.html The Meme Machine, Interview of Susan Blackmore by Denis Failly]
* [http://www.jom-emit.org ''Journal of Memetics'']
* [http://www.rubinghscience.org/memetics/dawkinsmemes.html The text of Dawkins' ''Selfish Gene'', chapter 11, "Memes: the new replicators"], in which Dawkins coined the word "meme"
* [http://www.themockingmemes.com The Mocking Memes: A Basis for Automated Intelligence], a 2006 book on a memetic theory of mind.
* [http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/cs.htm Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology] by [[Jack Balkin]] which uses memes to explain the growth and spread of ideology.
* [http://www.roumazeilles.net/news/nw/news0056.php Why did the chicken cross the road? The story of a meme]
* [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.10/godwin.if_pr.html A short piece] by [[Mike Godwin]] on memes in [[Wired Magazine]].
* [http://www.complexsystems.org/commentaries/jul01.html "The Invasion of the Memes"] ─ memes as an useful metaphor, nothing more.
* [http://www.scribd.com/doc/3015752/What-is-a-Meme-by-Brent-Silby "What is a Meme?"] by Brent Silby ─ an introductory article pitched at a general audience.
* [http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2005/09/memes_part_2_a.html A discussion of memes] by [[Deepak Chopra]]
* [http://cbio.mskcc.org/~hoffmann/lifecycles/olv/index.html "Life cycles of successful genes"], 2003, Robert Hoffmann
* [http://www.memes.org Memes.org] ─ [[as of 2007|Just]] relaunched as a forum for discussion about memes and memetics.
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s1617982.htm Dawkins' speech on the 30th anniversary of the publication of ''The Selfish Gene''], Dawkins 2006
* {{PDFlink|1=[http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv.php?pid=UQ:8801&dsID=sjw_ijpm_05.pdf "A Memetic Paradigm of Project Management"]|2=98.0 KB}},Whitty 2005
* [http://www.scribd.com/doc/3114745/Evolution-of-Technology-by-Brent-Silby "The Evolution of Technology"] by Brent Silby ─ memetics used to explain human creativity.
* [http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/cas01.html "Evolution and Memes: The human brain as a selective imitation device"]: article by [[Susan Blackmore]].
* [http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/116 Dan Dennett discusses Memes]: Video from Ted Talks - February 2002.
* [http://www.memecentral.com/ Meme Central]: "Virus of the Mind" author Richard Brodie's resource for links on memetics.
* [http://www.memeticians.com/ Memeticians]: The memetic windmill, harnessing the power of ideas blowing in the wind.
{{Dawkins}}
[[Category:Cultural anthropology]]
[[Category:Futurology]]
[[Category:Internet memes]]
[[Category:Memetics|*]]
[[Category:Philosophy of mind]]
[[Category:Collective intelligence]]
[[Category:Units of morphological analysis]]
[[Category:Units of information (cognitive processes)]]
[[af:Meem]]
[[ar:ميمي]]
[[ca:Mem]]
[[cs:Mem]]
[[de:Mem]]
[[et:Meem]]
[[es:Meme]]
[[eo:Memeo]]
[[fr:Mème]]
[[gl:Meme]]
[[ko:밈]]
[[it:Meme]]
[[he:מם]]
[[lt:Memas]]
[[hu:mém]]
[[nl:Meme]]
[[ja:ミーム]]
[[no:Mem]]
[[pl:Mem]]
[[pt:Meme]]
[[ru:Мем]]
[[fi:Meemi]]
[[sv:Mem]]
[[uk:Мем]]
[[zh:迷因]]