Take on Memes

A meme is a unit of cultural transmission. It takes its name from the French word “meme,” which means “same”, but also contains echoes of mimetic and memory. Whereas genes are passed on biologically, memes are units of information passed on by imitation and reproduction. Willingly or unwillingly, we absorb memes from the time we are born. Taking on these units of information is as important to our survival as a healthy set of genes might be.

From the start, people who have specific skills for childbirth, have had this knowledge passed along to them.   They weren't born with the information but have learned it from other mothers, midwives, or doctors. Beyond the latest technological tools for microsurgery, the fact that the doctor might wear glasses to help him see is itself a product of memes. When someone discovered that a piece of curved rock crystal could magnify things, he transmitted this information to someone else. This information about glass is only one of the millions of memes that assist us in our daily lives. With poor eyesight, the doctor might not have been able to attend medical school and go on to save lives. Simple eyeglasses help us see the information that helps us learn what cannot be passed on by those closest to us.  We speak, we write, we read, we learn, and we ask. Languages are produced by memes. From our family units, to our communities, our religions, our inner selves and our worldview, all of these belief systems are learned by imitation.

Memes are not new, but they have only recently been named. The study of meme dynamics helps us understand ourselves as a species on more than just a biological level. There are many branches of meme theory - meme warfare, memes as parasites, the study of macro memes (religion & theories) and micro memes (words & habits), the brain as a host for memes, the extinction & replication of memes, adaptation of memes by natural selection, and the death of memes. Memes are passed on and caught by word, by mouth, by action, by all of our senses. Memes live in us, in the media, on the internet. It has been said that “a human being is an animal infested by memes”. Humans can be faulty carriers of memes.  Computers are better at this as they can quickly calculate possible outcomes, but computers, for the moment, lack some of the tools for processing memes like morality and inspiration.

Memes mutate by re-imagining themselves in light of other memes. Much like our galaxy’s spiral form, memes, when reproduced, are not exact replicas of their seed, but are sown on another level up or down a spiral path of the long human march.

Unfortunately, many people these days consider memes to be a joke, a way of poking fun at a cultural icon.  The importance of the word and what it has done for humanity has been trivialized and discounted.  Without memes, there would be no Internet, yet the online memes that helped to create it have eaten their own mother.