the secret life of the meme
Memes. They are ubiquitous. We’ve all seen
them. This is a meme from early 2012, the breadcat:
Once safely contained within the confines of the
interwebz, memes filter into the mainstream faster and faster every day. But
they have a history unto themselves. In the spirit of greater meme awareness, allow me to take you on cursory stroll through basic memetics 101.
‘Meme’ is shorthand for a catchy idea. A
thing that people copy or repeat over and over. The term is a play on the word
‘gene’ and can be traced to Richard Dawkins’ classic bit of thinking about
evolution, The Selfish Gene (1976).
His spin on it is quite fun. People copy
what they think is awesome or useful. If we repeat the idea then it survives.
If we don’t repeat it then it dies off, like the Dodo. Simple, really.
This would make human culture actually
something like an ecosystem inhabited by a wholly different kind of life-form –
ideas – that are replicated like genes are replicated in cells.
People repeat small ideas or actions, like shaking hands or calling a friend 'mate'. These join
up into clusters of ideas and behaviours (a ‘memeplex’). Some memeplexes eat other ones and absorb them into their structure. They might even join
up into grander and more complex things, like religion or classical music or Welshness.
In short: evolution but with bits of culture
instead of dinosaurs and monkeys. So
what does that tell us? Only that we might be vessels for a whole
other world of creatures. And that they use us to replicate themselves. And we don't even know it.
Well, maybe. Whether or not memes qualify as 'life', it's certainly something to think about as thousands plan how to pull off the Harlem Shake without getting fired.
—–
(Thoughts courtesy of Planning Placement newbie James.)
Update from Neil: See below for an example of what happens when memes collide. Is this a 'memeplex'?
