- seCtIon FoUR: eVoLUtIon
rules like driving on the left (or the right), and habits like eating with chop-
sticks (or a knife and fork), as well as songs, dances, clothes fashions, and
technologies. The theory of memes is highly controversial and has been
criticised by biologists, sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers
(Aunger, 2000; Richerson and Boyd, 2005; Wimsatt, 2010). Nevertheless, it
potentially provides a completely new way of understanding the evolution
of consciousness.
The term ‘meme’ was coined by Dawkins (1976) to
illustrate the principle of universal Darwinism and
to provide an example of a replicator other than the
gene (Concept 11.2).
Memes count as replicators because they are infor-
mation that is copied with variation and selection.
Of all the thousands of jokes you’ve ever heard, you
have probably remembered very few, and passed
on even fewer. For every bestselling book, millions
of copies of unpopular ones sit unread on the
shelves. As for internet memes – only the funniest
versions of Doge’s bad grammar get copied millions
of times; only the best Gangnam Style dances have
been watched billions of times. Memes are copied
by imitation, teaching, and reading, and by all the
computerised processes of the modern information
age. Sometimes they are copied perfectly, but often
variation is introduced. This can happen when the
copying is imperfect, as in forgetting or misremem-
bering the punchline to a joke, or when old memes
are combined in new ways to produce new memes,
like all the variations on the ‘why did the chicken
cross the road?’ or ‘how many Xs does it take to
change a lightbulb?’ jokes, or many of the most suc-
cessful internet memes. This means that the whole of
human culture can be seen as a vast new evolution-
ary process based on memes, and human creativity
can be seen as analogous to biological creativity. On
this view, biological creatures and human inventions
are both designed by the evolutionary algorithm.
Human beings are the meme machines that store,
copy, and recombine memes (Blackmore, 1999).The theory of memetics did not start by analogy
with genes, although it is often described that way
(Searle, 1997; Wimsatt, 2010). Rather, memes are one
kind of replicator and genes are another. Analogies
can be drawn between them, but often these are
not close because the two replicators work quite
differently (Blackmore, 2010). For example, genes
are based on information stored in molecules of
DNA, and copied with extremely high fidelity, while‘Talk of memes is just
the latest in a succession
of ill-judged Darwinian
metaphors’
(John Gray, 2008)
memes
Origins. Dawkins (1976) coined the
term to provide an example of a replicator
other than the gene: a cultural replicator.Definitions
Meme. (mi:m), n. Biol. (shortened from
mimeme [.. .] that which is imitated, after
Gene n.) ‘A cultural element or behavioural
trait whose transmission and consequent
persistence in a population, although occur-
ring by non-genetic means (esp. imitation),
is considered as analogous to the inheri-
tance of a gene’ (Oxford English Dictionary,
January 2018). A meme is any information
that is copied from person to person. many
mental events, including perceptions, visual
memories, and emotions, are not memes
because they are not acquired by imitation
or copying. skills acquired by individual
learning, such as avoiding flames or hot
chilli, are not memes. Your skateboard is a
meme (it was copied), and the idea of skate-
boarding is a meme, but your skill in riding it is not (you
had to learn by trial and error and so does your friend
who watches you enviously).
Memeplex. Abbreviated from ‘co-adapted meme
complex’: a group of memes that are passed on together.
memeplexes form whenever a meme can replicate better
as part of a group than it can on its own. memeplexes
range from small groups of words, such as sentences and
stories, to religions, scientific theories, and works of art,
or financial and political institutions.C
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11.2