An explanation of Memes

The only similarity that memes have to genes is that they are both replicators. There are other types of replicators as well. For instance, our immune systems are know to work by selection and replication. By their nature, replicators are competitors. They compete to be successful, not in any deterministic way. Rather, successful replicators survive and thrive. Those that don't fall by the wayside.
 Memes are instructions for carrying out behaviours. They are stored in our brains and are passed on by imitation.  The competition of and emergence of successful memes can be looked at as the drivers behind the evolution of the human mind. (Blackmore, P.17)
Daniel Dennet, a respected researcher/academic, has stated that the human mind and our concept of self developed by processes connected to the interplay of memes. He claims that human consciousness and many of our thinking processes are products of meme interactions. These existing memes  have taken root in varying ways, in different cultures over the centuries. They have been passed down from generation to generation, adapting, changing and building on the successes of their predecessor memes. Their means of transmission are by whatever means works.

As means of communication have progressed, the speed and changeability of successful memes have followed.  Ideas are now spread almost instantaneously. Political movements and other components of culture change like the weather. Outlooks on life hardly remain the same year to year, although varying from society to society.  Peace movements, green movements, fanatic groups, anti-social types, NGO's, tyrannies, hate spouting groups - these are but a few examples of humans acting based on memes that have successfully taken over them or those of influence within their communities.


Only a few memes are ever copied from brain to brain. The ones we meet are the successful ones, the ones that made it in the "competition for replication".  Memes processes include passing on information by using language, reading, instruction and other complex human skills and behaviours.  It includes any kind of copying of ideas and behaviours from one person to another. (Blackmore, p.43)

There are of course other forms of learning that don't rely on meme replication.  These include classical and operant conditioning.  Imitation and the passing on of memes involves learning to do acts from seeing it done by others. (Edward Lee Thorndike (1898) (in Blackmore p.47)

Good quality replicators have Fidelity, Fecundity, and Longevity. (Dawkins 1976 in Blackmore p.58)

Memes are very much involved with "Religion".  Memes answer all kinds of questions - such as where do we come from?  Where do we go when we die? Memes can explain suffering.  That doesn't mean that the explanations that come from memes are necessarily true.

Religion can give people a sense of belonging.  Religion is often connected to useful rules for living, such as hygiene, routines, interpersonal relations and so on.  These useful memes also will serve to carry and spread themselves among others.

A part of meme propagation is something referred to as "The Altruism Trick".  The way this works - most people consider themselves to be good.  They do or want to do good.  They believe in being good because that is what they have been taught by their religion.  Others will imitate these good people, expanding concepts of altruism.  The imitating of altruism will connect these new altruistic people to the original religion which encouraged that very behaviour.  The imitator functions - the replicators - are mutually dependent on each other for spreading and for their success.

Religions rely on faith, which is untestable.  That factor (faith) protects memes from rejection.  The various and connected memes of religion are stored in various forms, in oral tradition, rituals - and in sacred books.

The "great religions" evolved gradually, over time, by memetic selection. Historically, societies with priests developed religious memes that were more successful than those without priests.  The presence and influence of charismatic leaders played an important part not only in religious development , but in human societies.  (p. 196 Blackmore)

Memes can be untruthful.  The point is that they be successful.  As human beings, we tend to be curious, to look for "truth" in facts.  However, at times we can be tricked into believing that something false is the way things are.  A ready example is the long held belief that the world was flat.  It took centuries, scientific developments and other factual support to change people's way of thinking.

As an important component of human survival and evolution, we have developed complex perceptual systems which provide us with an accurate model of the external world around us.
Our capacity to thin and solve problems aim us to ideas and perception that are "true" rather than "false".  In terms of memes, true ones should thrive better than false ones. (p.180 Blackmore)  But there exists something called "truth mimicry.  False claims can sneak into memplexes (groups of memes) under the protection of truly true ones.  Further, these false ideas can spread and become widely held myths.  The contra side to disproving or changing these false memes, is application of truth and facts through science and/or other scholarly methods.

Where Do Memes Come From?

Memes generally arise through variation and combination of older or existing memes.  They exist inside a person's brain and mind.  They have formed through a process of natural selection and have been passed on, over time from person to person, by way of imitation and replication. (Blackmore, p. 15)

A meme does not have to be truthful, right or wrong to be successful. If a meme can spread, it will. (Blackmore, p. 14)

Not all thoughts or mind processes are memes.  For example, perceptions and emotions are not memes. Rather, they are our own inner processes and are not usually passed on to other human beings.  However, because we use memes so much, a large part of our thinking is coloured by memes.  In other words, memes have become one of the major tools by which we think, learn and form ideas. (Blackmore, p.15)

Some memes succeed for long periods of time.  Others fail quickly.  Other once-successful memes are eventually replaced by newer, stronger memes.  Over time, many memes come and go. Some stay and basically remain the same.  Then there are those memes which take hold, evolve and become prevalent in our every day lives.  They come and they don't go.

Memes & Natural Selection

Meme, like genes, are selected against other specific memes and other groupings of memes.  Meme pools adapt to particular environments in cooperative, successful, evolutionary self-replicating manners. (Blackmore, p. XV Forward) Genes work in similar ways, although obviously their methods are totally different.

Memes and genes are both units of natural selection. They are both replicators, units of which copies are made (with occasional errors).  Genetic natural selection has been the driving force of all evolution. But, mimetic natural selection helps to explain why we human are so unique from all other animals, particularly in our behaviour, intelligence and social cooperation.  Memes are all about our natural ability to imitate. That ability is extremely rare in other animals. Learning by imitation is what we do that makes us unique as human  beings. (Blackmore, p.4)

Memes - The Non-Gene Part of Natural Selection

Human beings do much of their learning by imitating other human beings. When that something which is imitated is passed on to another human being, it can subsequently be passed on again and again. This something which is passed on is called a meme. A meme can be an idea, a thought or the elements that influence or motivate human behaviour.  It can be a song, a culture or a religion.  (see Susan Blackmore, The Meme Machine, p.4)

Memes are stored in human brains and are passed on by imitation. That which is learned by imitation from some else can be described as being a meme. Memes include all words in our vocabulary, all stories we know, all skills and habits picked up from others. It includes songs we sing and rules we obey. (p.6 Blackmore)

Memes are gene analogues. They are elements of culture passed on by non-genetic means. Memes travel longitudinally down generations and also horizontally through and across populations.  Memes can includes  ideas, movements, fads, crazes, and cults.  Memes incorporate a wide array of thoughts and beliefs that take hold in our minds and influence our behaviours.

Different memes are copied and transmitted from body to body - brain to brain - at different frequencies and rates of success. Often different memes will end up functioning in a cooperative grouping.  One meme supports the other in achieving success by replicating and staying viable. A grouping or co-adaptive set of memes, working together, is called a memeplex (meme complex)