The Meme (notes)

Francis Heylighen (1996):
Evolution of Memes on the Network: from chain-letters to the global brain, in:
Principia Cybernetica Web
Reference cited:
Heylighen (1993), "Selection Criteria for the Evolution of Knowledge", Proc. 13th Int. Cong. on Cybernetics (Int. Ass. of Cybernetics, Namur), p. 524-528

The Meme - Excerpts and notes: "There are several selection criteria which determine in how far a particular meme will be successful. The more of these criteria a meme satisfies, the more likely it is that it will maintain and spread (Heylighen, 1993). Objective criteria determine whether the knowledge conveyed by a meme can reliably predict events in the outside world."

Subjective criteria determine in how far an individual is willing to assimilate a particular meme. They include:

1. coherence:
the meme is internally consistent, and does not
contradict other beliefs the individual already has;
2. novelty:
the meme adds something new, something
remarkable, that attracts the person's attention;
3. simplicity:
it is easy to grasp and to remember;
4. individual utility:
the meme helps the individual to further his or her
personal goals.

Intersubjective criteria determine how easily memes travel from subject to subject. They include:

5. salience:
the meme is easily noticed by others, e.g.
because it is shouted out loud, or printed on big
posters;
6. expressivity:
the meme is easily expressed in language or
other codes of communication;
7. formality:
the interpretation of the meme's expression
depends little on person or context;
8. infectiveness:
the individuals who carry the meme are inclined to
"spread the word", to teach it to other people or to
convert them to the belief;
9. conformism:
the meme is supported by what the majority
believe;
10. collective utility:
the meme is useful for the group, without
necessarily being useful for an individual (e.g.
the traffic code).

• • •

See also:
Heylighen (1998), What makes a meme successful? Selection criteria for cultural evolution
ABSTRACT: Meme replication is described as a 4-stage process, consisting of assimilation, retention, expression and transmission. The effect of different objective, subjective, intersubjective and meme-centered selection criteria on these different stages is discussed., in:
Proc. 16th Int. Congress on Cybernetics (Association Internat. de Cybernétique, Namur), p. 423-418.
Principia Cybernetica Web

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Richard Dawkins:
Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leading from body to body via sperm or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. If a scientist hears, or reads about, a good idea, he passes it on to his colleagues and students. He mentions it in his articles and his lectures. If the idea catches on, it can be said to propagate itself, spreading from brain to brain. ...[M]emes should be regarded as living structures, not just metaphorically but technically. When you plant a fertile meme in my mind, you literally parasitize my brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme's propagation in just the way that a virus may parasitize the genetic mechanism of a host cell. And this isn't just a way of talking - the meme for, say, "belief in life after death" is actually realized physically, millions of times over, as a structure in the nervous systems of individual men the world over.