[Previous WA
article on the idea of ideas from memeticistic perspective.]
Journal of Memetic: Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/
[journal]
Principia Cybernetica
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMES.html
Meme: an information pattern, held in an individual's memory, which
is capable of being copied to another individual's memory.
Memetics: the theoretical and empirical science that studies the replication,
spread and evolution of memes.
Santa Fe Institute
http://www.santafe.edu/~shalizi/formerly-hyper-weird/memetics.html
Aaron Lynch Thought Contagion - How Belief Spreads Through Society
Great Men and their Environment : William James
http://www.santafe.edu/~shalizi/James/great_men.html
Center for Cognitive Studies
http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/
Daniel C. Dennett, Director
http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/~ddennett.htm
meme
(pron. `meem') A contagious information pattern that replicates
by
parasitically infecting human minds and altering their behavior,
causing them to propagate the pattern. (Term coined by Dawkins,
by analogy with "gene".) Individual slogans, catch-phrases,
melodies, icons, inventions, and fashions are typical memes. An
idea or information pattern is not a meme until it causes someone
to replicate it, to repeat it to someone else. All transmitted
knowledge is memetic. (Wheelis, quoted in Hofstadter.) (See
meme-complex).
memetic engineer
One who consciously devises memes, through meme-splicing
and
memetic synthesis, with the intent of altering the behavior of
others. Writers of manifestos and of commercials are typical
memetic engineers. (GMG)
meme-complex
A set of mutually-assisting memes which have co-evolved a
symbiotic relationship. Religious and political dogmas, social
movements, artistic styles, traditions and customs, chain letters,
paradigms, languages, etc. are meme-complexes. Also called an
m-plex, or scheme (Hofstadter). Types of co-memes commonly
found in a scheme are called the: bait; hook; threat; and vaccime.
A successful scheme commonly has certain attributes: wide scope
(a paradigm that explains much); opportunity for the carriers to
participate and contribute; conviction of its self-evident truth
(carries Authority); offers order and a sense of place, helping to
stave off the dread of meaninglessness. (Wheelis, quoted by
Hofstadter.)
meme pool
The full diversity of memes accessible to a culture or individual.
Learning languages and traveling are methods of expanding one's
meme pool.
memetic drift
Accumulated mis-replications; (the rate of) memetic mutation or
evolution. Written texts tend to slow the memetic drift of dogmas
(Henson).
meme pool
The full diversity of memes accessible to a culture or individual.
Learning languages and traveling are methods of expanding one's
meme pool.
memetic drift
Accumulated mis-replications; (the rate of) memetic mutation or
evolution. Written texts tend to slow the memetic drift of dogmas
(Henson).
memeticist
1. One who studies memetics. 2. A memetic engineer. (GMG)
memetics
The study of memes and their social effects.
host
A person who has been successfully infected by a meme. See
infection, membot, memeoid.
hook
The part of a meme-complex that urges replication. The hook is
often most effective when it is not an explicit statement, but a
logical consequence of the memeUs content. (Hofstadter) (See
bait, threat.)
bait
The part of a meme-complex that promises to benefit the host
(usually in return for replicating the complex). The bait usually
justifies, but does not explicitly urge, the replication of a
meme-complex. (Donald Going, quoted by Hofstadter.) Also
called the reward co-meme. (In many religions, "Salvation" is the
bait, or promised reward; "Spread the Word" is the hook. Other
common bait co-memes are "Eternal Bliss", "Security",
"Prosperity", "Freedom".) (See hook; threat; infection strategy.)
infection
1. Successful encoding of a meme in the memory of a human
being. A memetic infection can be either active or inactive. It is
inactive if the host does not feel inclined to transmit the meme to
other people. An active infection causes the host to want to infect
others. Fanatically active hosts are often membots or memeoids.
A person who is exposed to a meme but who does not remember
it (consciously or otherwise) is not infected. (A host can indeed be
unconsciously infected, and even transmit a meme without
conscious awareness of the fact. Many societal norms are
transmitted this way.) (GMG)
2. Some memeticists have used `infection' as a synonym for
`belief' (i.e. only believers are infected, non-believers are not).
However, this usage ignores the fact that people often transmit
memes they do not "believe in." Songs, jokes, and fantasies are
memes which do not rely on "belief" as an infection strategy.
infection strategy
Any memetic strategy which encourages infection of a host.
Jokes encourage infection by being humorous, tunes by evoking
various emotions, slogans and catch-phrases by being terse and
continuously repeated. Common infection strategies are "Villain
vs. victim", "Fear of Death", and "Sense of Community". In a
meme-complex, the bait co-meme is often central to the infection
strategy. (See replication strategy; mimicry.) (GMG)
meta-meme
Any meme about memes (such as: "tolerance", "metaphor").
ideosphere
The realm of memetic evolution, as the biosphere is the realm of
biological evolution. The entire memetic ecology. (Hofstadter.)
The health of an ideosphere can be measured by its memetic
diversity.
More web junk
alt.memetics [What is a Meme Page]
http://maxwell.lucifer.com/virus/alt.memetics/
Susan Blackmore - The Meme Machine
http://www.2think.org/mememachine.shtml
[i do not go for her perspectives]
Meme Warfare A DISPATCH FROM THE FOREBRAIN OF THE GLOBAL CULTURE JAMMER
http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/32/meme.html
[article]
The Art of the Meme
Using memes to change your life, your career, and the course of history.
URL: http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/taotmeme.html
• Translate
[a cute attempt at a self-help meme]
http://www.mediajihad.com/
http://www.memepool.com/
http://www.memes.org
[these ones --self interests memes]