Meme: Difference between revisions
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A meme identifies ideas, practices or beliefs that are transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another (from one person or group of people to another person or group of people). It identifies a basic unit of cultural information. The concept comes from an analogy made by Richard Dawkins in his book in The Selfish Gene (1976): as [[Gene|genes]] transmit biological information, memes can be said to transmit idea and belief information. Richard Dawkins initially defined meme as a noun which "conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation". | A meme identifies ideas, practices or beliefs that are transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another (from one person or group of people to another person or group of people). It identifies a basic unit of cultural information. The concept comes from an analogy made by Richard Dawkins in his book in The Selfish Gene (1976): as [[Gene|genes]] transmit biological information, memes can be said to transmit idea and belief information. Richard Dawkins initially defined meme as a noun which "conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation". | ||
== Memetic Bodies == | |||
[[Civilization|Civilizations]], [[Complex society|complex societies]] and [[Mind|minds]] can be considered as memetic bodies. In principles, any social group which is defined by a set of memes can be considered as a memetic body, similar to a genetic body constructed by [[Gene|genes]]. | |||
== Soul Dust == | == Soul Dust == | ||
Revision as of 15:20, 6 March 2011
A meme identifies ideas, practices or beliefs that are transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another (from one person or group of people to another person or group of people). It identifies a basic unit of cultural information. The concept comes from an analogy made by Richard Dawkins in his book in The Selfish Gene (1976): as genes transmit biological information, memes can be said to transmit idea and belief information. Richard Dawkins initially defined meme as a noun which "conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation".
Memetic Bodies
Civilizations, complex societies and minds can be considered as memetic bodies. In principles, any social group which is defined by a set of memes can be considered as a memetic body, similar to a genetic body constructed by genes.
Soul Dust
A single meme or idea can be considered as "soul dust", for example a quote from someone who is no longer living. Although he is no longer living, he has left traces of his existence in this particular sentence.
Reconstruct a Mind
Can we (re-)construct minds from different parts or pieces ? Is there a blueprint for a soul (whatever that is)? If genes are blueprints used to construct bodies, then maybe memes can be considered as blueprints to construct minds.
Links
- Wikipedia entry for meme
