Return-Path: <REZABEH1648@cobra.uni.edu> Date: Mon, 04 Apr 1994 12:21:00 -0600 (CST) From: heath michael rezabek <REZABEH1648@cobra.uni.edu> Subject: memetics -- a stab at definition To: mariusw@ifi.uio.no X-Envelope-to: mariusw@ifi.uio.no X-VMS-To: IN%"mariusw@ifi.uio.no" MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT [this is a forwarded post. it might go well with the memetics stuff. it's by me.] -- >chip >At the risk of sounding follish, could someone give me a definition of the >word "memes"? I kind of have a grasp of it, but not completely! :) (Nor is >it in any dictionary I've found!) :) well, i can throw several definitions i've run across at you, and what sticks will help you flesh out what you kind of have a grasp of, which is probably pretty close. it's an idea that people are always afraid to make the leap from "catching the drift" of to usage; and in actual use is the best place to figure it out. most people i find already know, but want a definitive version. fortunately, there is none. :) ok, the closest to definive would be the def given by the guy who coined the word; oxford biologist Richard Dawkins, in his book "The Selfish Gene." a quote: "The new soup is the soup of human culture. 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 *me^me. It should be pronounced to rhyme with 'cream'." so the meme is to culture as the gene is to biology. John Perry Barlow defines them as "self-replicating patterns of information that propagate themselves across the ecologies of mind, a pattern of reproduction much like that of life forms." [wired 2.03] in my fringeware article i defined it as "any discreet notion or idea which spreads throughout the consciousness of a population," and my personal def i've boiled down to "a fundamental agent of communicative resonance." there is no "official" definition; Dawkins introduced it, talked around the definition, and then it seeped into the net. now, it morphs slightly with every environment in which it appears. this seems the nature of the MEME meme and is probably not a problem. i think that because memes are dealing with culture and language, they share with it the trait of adaptability and morph-ability. one native example of a meme is the "emoticon" --> :) ^^ my favorite example of a crucial meme would be "fire" or more importantly, "how to make a fire." this is a behavioral meme, mind you, one which didn't necessarily need a word attached to it to spring up and spread, merely a demonstration for another to follow. one the meme was out there, it would have spread like wildfire, for obvious reasons... [the advantages gained, not the pun. :) ] but when you start to think of memes like that -- behavioral memes -- then you can begin to see how language itself, the idea of language, was a meme. writing was a meme. and within those areas, more specific memes emerged. so you can draw a straight line to represent the horizon; now, catch the meme of drawing a sunset, or a herd of animals. etc etc etc. i'm sure you have a pretty clear version in your head by now.. as for the question, "is it a real life form, or is it just a metaphor," i've found that the MEME meme catches on well when explained either way; it all depends on the audience. some are more receptive to the idea that it could represent a new current of actual life; some feel more receptive to the MEME meme when it's introduced sheerly as metaphor. use it in whichever sense feels right to you, and to your fellows. it'll work fine either way. apparently, though, all of the traits which govern natural selection when considering the gene seem to apply to the meme. that's why the analogy works so well. considering culture in terms of memetics has direct [almost "philosophical," and certainly practical] consequences, which i'm always willing to entertain talking about. ie, politics in terms of memetics, sub-cultures as memetic niches, topics and "threads" which re-occur as what i call memetic attractors, etc. hope this helps to clarify your own definition! hmr