## Definition A **meme** (coined by Richard Dawkins in *The Selfish Gene*, 1976, from Greek *mimeme*, "something imitated") is a unit of cultural information that propagates from mind to mind by imitation — the cultural analogue of the gene. Where genes replicate via biochemical copying, memes replicate via learning, imitation, communication, and instruction. Examples include tunes, catchphrases, clothing fashions, architectural styles, political ideologies, and religious beliefs. Like genes, memes are subject to selection: variants that spread more readily, persist longer, or resist displacement come to dominate the cultural pool. ## Meme as Replicator Dawkins's argument is that, once a self-copying entity exists, Darwinian logic applies regardless of the substrate. A meme is a [[Replicator and Vehicle|replicator]] instantiated in nervous tissue rather than nucleic acid. The cultural environment (the pool of ideas in a population) is the equivalent of the gene pool; individual brains and social institutions are the vehicles. Three selection-relevant properties of memes: | Property | Explanation | |---|---| | **Fecundity** | How readily a meme spreads to new minds (catchy tunes, vivid metaphors, viral social-media content) | | **Longevity** | How long a meme persists in a single mind (childhood memories, religious creeds) | | **Fidelity** | How accurately a meme is copied; memes are much less faithful than genes, yet the core idea often persists (Darwin's theory, spread through millions of slightly different personal summaries) | ## Independence from Gene Fitness A critical and controversial feature: memes are not constrained to promote gene survival. A meme can flourish precisely at the expense of gene replication — celibacy spreads via religion despite reducing offspring count; dietary fads spread despite sometimes harming health. This independence is what makes culture a partially autonomous evolutionary system. Dawkins: "God exists, if only in the form of a meme with high survival value, or infective power, in the environment provided by human culture." ## Symbiotic Meme Complexes Memes cooperate with other memes, forming stable clusters (sometimes called *memeplexes*). Faith and salvation work together in Christian theology; each meme strengthens the plausibility of the other. Competing meme complexes (capitalism vs. communism; left-wing vs. right-wing politics) follow analogous dynamics to competing allele clusters. ## Status and Critiques Dawkins himself flagged the meme hypothesis as speculative. The subsequent literature includes: - **Memetics** (Blackmore, Dennett) — took the analogy seriously and built a research programme. - **Dual inheritance theory** (Boyd & Richerson, Henrich) — the now-dominant framework, treating genetic and cultural evolution as two interacting inheritance systems. It is more mathematically rigorous and empirically grounded than strict memetics. - **Criticisms:** The definition of a meme's boundaries is vague; "imitation" covers too many heterogeneous mechanisms; unlike genes, memes lack a clear copying mechanism analogous to DNA replication. The meme concept retains heuristic power even if the strict analogy with genes is imperfect. ## Related - [[Replicator and Vehicle]] - [[Gene-Centred View of Evolution]] ## Sources - [[The Extended Selfish Gene (Dawkins 2016)]]