Meme
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A Meme is a knowledge item that spreads from cognitive agent to cognitive agent.
- Context:
- It can range from being a Viral Meme to being a Non-Viral Meme.
- Example(s):
- …
- Counter-Example(s):
- a Gene.
- See: Culture, Selection (Biology), Evolution, Virality Prediction.
References
2015
- (Wikipedia, 2015) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/meme Retrieved:2015-11-22.
- A meme is "an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture". A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols, or practices that can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals, or other imitable phenomena with a mimicked theme. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures. The word meme is a shortening (modeled on gene) of mimeme (from Ancient Greek mīmēma, "imitated thing", from mimeisthai, "to imitate", from mimos, "mime") [1] coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976) [2] as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena. Examples of memes given in the book included melodies, catchphrases, fashion, and the technology of building arches. Proponents theorize that memes are a viral phenomenon that may evolve by natural selection in a manner analogous to that of biological evolution. Memes do this through the processes of variation, mutation, competition, and inheritance, each of which influences a meme's reproductive success. Memes spread through the behavior that they generate in their hosts. Memes that propagate less prolifically may become extinct, while others may survive, spread, and (for better or for worse) mutate. Memes that replicate most effectively enjoy more success, and some may replicate effectively even when they prove to be detrimental to the welfare of their hosts.[3] A field of study called memetics arose in the 1990s to explore the concepts and transmission of memes in terms of an evolutionary model. Criticism from a variety of fronts has challenged the notion that academic study can examine memes empirically. However, developments in neuroimaging may make empirical study possible. Some commentators in the social sciences question the idea that one can meaningfully categorize culture in terms of discrete units, and are especially critical of the biological nature of the theory's underpinnings. [4] Others have argued that this use of the term is the result of a misunderstanding of the original proposal.[5] Dawkins's own position is somewhat ambiguous: he obviously welcomed N. K. Humphrey's suggestion that "memes should be considered as living structures, not just metaphorically" and wanted to regard memes as "physically residing in the brain". Later, he argued that his original intentions, presumably before his approval of Humphrey's opinion, had been simpler.[6] At the New Directors' Showcase 2013 in Cannes, Dawkins' opinion on memetics was deliberately ambiguous.[7]
- ↑ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition, 2000
- ↑ ; Varieties of meaning. "Richard Dawkins invented the term 'memes' to stand for items that are reproduced by imitation rather than reproduced genetically."
- ↑ 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."
- ↑ Gill, Jameson (2011). Memes and narrative analysis: A potential direction for the development of neo-Darwinian orientated research in organisations. In: Euram 11 : proceedings of the European Academy of Management. European Academy of Management.
- ↑ (This is an open access article, made freely available courtesy of MIT Press.)
- ↑ Dawkins' foreword to , p. xvi
- ↑ Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors' Showcase 2013
2013
- (Weng et al., 2013) ⇒ Lilian Weng, Filippo Menczer, and Yong-Yeol Ahn. (2013). “Virality Prediction and Community Structure in Social Networks.” In: Scientific reports, 3.
- QUOTE: … We show that, while most memes indeed spread like complex contagions, a few viral memes spread across many communities, like diseases. We demonstrate that the future popularity of a meme can be predicted by quantifying its early spreading pattern in terms of community concentration. The more communities a meme permeates, the more viral it is. ...
2000
- (Blackmore, 2000) ⇒ Susan J. Blackmore. (2000). “The Meme Machine." Oxford University Press.
- QUOTE: What is a meme? First coined by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene, a meme is any idea, behavior, or skill that can be transferred from one person to another by imitation: stories, fashions, inventions, recipes, songs, ways of plowing a field or throwing a baseball or making a sculpture. The meme is also one of the most important -- and controversial -- concepts to emerge since The Origin of the Species appeared nearly 150 years ago. In The Meme Machine Susan Blackmore boldly asserts: "Just as design of our bodies can be understood only in terms of natural selection, so the design of our minds can be understood only in terms of memetic selection. "
1976
- (Dawkins, 1976) ⇒ Richard Dawkin. (1976). “The Selfish Gene.” In: Oxford University Press.