CANADA, Aug 06 — Richard Dawkins came up with the idea of a meme back in 1976. A meme is defined as “that which is imitated,” and it includes any culture idea or unit of replication. Dawkins’ great idea was that evolution does not apply to genetics only. Evolution is one of the greatest ideas ever conceived, in that it explains the very reason we exist as we do
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ichard Dawkins came up with the idea of a meme back in 1976. A meme is defined as “that which is imitated,” and it includes any culture idea or unit of replication. Dawkins’ great idea was that evolution does not apply to genetics only. There are three basic components of evolution: heredity or inheritance, variation, and selection. Memetic theory looks at the transmission of memes – cultural ideas that spread – and how they evolve. Rather ironically, the term ‘meme’ did not catch on for a while.
Here is a brief overview of how the three factors of evolution apply to genetics, and we can then see how this might become applicable to other types of replicators. A gene is a unit of replication. It is passed on through generations of humans. That is the factor of heredity. Next is variation – in this case it could be random genetic mutations, or sexual recombination whenever a male and female copulate. These are processes by which genes obtain slight variations. The final factor necessary for evolution to occur is selection. There are actually two such mechanisms within genetics. Natural selection, of course, is when certain traits are favoured by their phenotypic relations in the environment. This is to say that because there are variations, the traits that cause higher rates of survival will be passed on. The major idea here is that when you have heredity, variation, and selection, you must have evolution taking place. The aforementioned is a simplistic way of stating evolution in terms of genetics.
And then there are memes. Memes, you will notice, also have heredity – they are passed along into the minds of humans. They are sometimes varied – there is a continuum between memes that are self-correcting, and memes that rapidly change. Here, the point is that some of them are varied when they are transmitted (like a rumour that rapidly changes). Lastly, there is selection of memes. Humans do not allow just any old memes to be spread – only the best ideas, the most useful, the most desirable memes are accepted. Thus even though a meme is simply information that exists in some physical medium, it acquires evolution in a similar fashion to the genetic code of our bodies.
Memetics is a field of study that is gaining a lot of scientific attention now. This is really only the surface of memetic theory. Memeticists look at all the variables involved in the transmission and evolution of memes, its relationship with genes as a replicator, and quantitatively defining a meme for use in mathematical models. Memetic theory has huge implications in explaining anatomical development, what it means to be human, and why certain cultures exist. Evolution is one of the greatest ideas ever conceived, in that it explains the very reason we exist as we do. For more information, check out my website of meme evolution and culture.
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Richard Dawkins came up with the idea of a meme back in 1976. A meme is defined as “that which is imitated,” and it includes any culture idea or unit of replication. Dawkins’ great idea was that evolution does not apply to
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