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{{short description|Study of self-replicating units of culture}}
{{about|the study of self-replicating units of culture|the critical and philosophical term|Mimesis|the theory of human behavior|Mimetic theory|the study of Internet memes|Internet meme}}
{{more citations needed|date=December 2025}}

'''Memetics''', or the '''study of memes''', is an emerging discipline in [[cultural evolution]], based on the idea that culture can be reduced to the study of cultural units, called [[meme]]s: ideas, behaviors, beliefs, and expressions that spread from person to person in a culture through imitation.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Sanford |first1=Adam G. |last2=Smith |first2=Stacy L. |last3=Blum |first3=Dinur |title=Memetics |encyclopedia=The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology |date=2025 |pages=1–3 |doi=10.1002/9781405165518.wbeos2021 |isbn=9781405165518}}</ref> The term "meme" was coined by biologist [[Richard Dawkins]] in his 1976 book ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dawkins |first=Richard |title=The Selfish Gene |date=1981 |publisher=Oxford Univ. Pr |isbn=978-0-19-857519-1 |edition=Repr. with corr |location=Oxford}}</ref> to illustrate the principle that he later called "[[Universal Darwinism]]". All evolutionary processes depend on [[information]] being copied, varied, and selected, a process also known as variation with [[selective retention]]. The conveyor of the information being copied is known as the replicator, with the [[gene]] functioning as the replicator in biological [[evolution]]. Dawkins proposed that the same process drives [[cultural evolution]], and he called this second replicator the "meme," citing examples such as musical tunes, catchphrases, [[fashion]]s, and [[Technology|technologies]]. Like genes, memes are selfish replicators and have causal efficacy; in other words, their properties influence their chances of being copied and passed on. Some succeed because they are valuable or useful to their human hosts while others are more like viruses.

Just as genes can work together to form [[Co-adaptation|co-adapted]] gene complexes, so form groups of memes acting together co-adapted meme complexes or [[memeplex]]es. Memeplexes include (among many other things) [[language]]s, [[tradition]]s, [[Scientific theory|scientific theories]], [[financial institution]]s, and [[religion]]s. Dawkins famously referred to religions as "[[Viruses of the Mind|viruses of the mind]]".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Dennett |first1=Daniel Clement |title=Dennett and his critics: demystifying mind |last2=Dahlbom |first2=Bo |date=1993 |publisher=Blackwell |isbn=978-0-631-18549-9 |series=Philosophers and their critics |location=Oxford (GB) Cambridge (Mass.)}}</ref>

Among proponents of memetics are psychologist [[Susan Blackmore]], author of ''[[The Meme Machine]]'', who argues that when our ancestors began imitating behaviours, they let loose a second replicator and co-evolved to become the "meme machines" that copy, vary, and select memes in culture.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blackmore |first=Susan J. |title=The meme machine |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford university press |isbn=978-0-19-286212-9 |location=Oxford}}</ref> Philosopher [[Daniel Dennett]] develops memetics extensively, notably in his books ''[[Darwin's Dangerous Idea]]'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dennett |first=Daniel Clement |title=Darwin's dangerous idea: evolution and the meanings of life |date=1995 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-80290-9 |location=New York London Toronto [etc.]}}</ref> and ''[[From Bacteria to Bach and Back]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dennett |first=Daniel Clement |title=From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds |date=2017 |publisher=Allen Lane |isbn=978-0-241-00356-5 |location=London}}</ref> He describes the units of memes as "the smallest elements that replicate themselves with reliability and fecundity,"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dennett |first=Daniel Clement |title=Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life |date=1995 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-80290-9 |location=New York London Toronto [etc.] |pages=344}}</ref> and claims that "Human consciousness is itself a huge complex of memes."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dennett |first=Daniel Clement |title=Consciousness Explained |date=1991 |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-0-316-18065-8 |location=Boston |pages=210}}</ref> In ''[[The Beginning of Infinity]]'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Deutsch |first=David |title=The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World |date=2012 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-027816-3 |location=London}}</ref> the physicist [[David Deutsch]] contrasts static societies that depend on anti-rational memes, which suppress innovation and creativity, with dynamic societies based on rational memes that encourage [[Age of Enlightenment|enlightenment]] values, scientific curiosity, and progress.

Criticisms of memetics include claims that memes do not exist, that the analogy with genes is false, that the units cannot be specified, that culture does not evolve through imitation, and that the sources of variation are intelligently designed rather than random. Critics of memetics include biologist [[Stephen Jay Gould]] who calls memetics a "meaningless metaphor". Philosopher [[Dan Sperber]] argues against memetics as a viable approach to cultural evolution because cultural items are not directly copied or imitated but are reproduced.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-19-263244-9 |editor-last=Aunger |editor-first=Robert |edition=Repr |location=Oxford |pages=163–173}}</ref> Anthropologist [[Robert Boyd (anthropologist)|Robert Boyd]] and biologist [[Peter Richerson]] work within the alternative, and more mainstream, field of [[Cultural evolution|cultural evolution theory]] and [[gene-culture coevolution]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Richerson |first1=Peter J. |title=Not by genes alone: how culture transformed human evolution |last2=Boyd |first2=Robert |date=2008 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-71212-3 |edition=Paperback ed., [Nachdr.] |location=Chicago, Ill.}}</ref> [[Dual inheritance theory]] has much in common with memetics but rejects the idea that memes are replicators. From this perspective, memetics is seen as just one of several approaches to cultural evolution and one that is generally considered less useful than the alternatives of gene-culture coevolution or dual inheritance theory. The main difference is that dual inheritance theory ultimately depends on biological advantage to genes, whereas memetics treats memes as a second replicator in its own right. Memetics also extends to the analysis of [[Internet culture]] and [[Internet meme]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shifman |first=Limor |title=Memes in digital culture |date=2014 |publisher=The MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-52543-5 |series=The MIT Press essential knowledge series |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts}}</ref>

==History==
In his book ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'' (1976), the evolutionary biologist [[Richard Dawkins]] used the term ''[[meme]]'' to describe a unit of human [[Cultural learning|cultural transmission]] analogous to the [[gene]], arguing that replication also happens in [[culture]], albeit in a different sense. While [[cultural evolution]] itself is a much older topic, with a history that dates back at least as far as [[Charles Darwin|Darwin]]'s era, Dawkins (1976) proposed that the meme is a unit of culture residing in the brain and is the mutating [[self-replication|replicator]] in human cultural evolution. After Dawkins, many discussed this unit of culture as evolutionary "information" which replicates with rules analogous  to [[Natural selection|Darwinian selection]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hull |first=David L.  |title=Science and selection : essays on biological evolution and the philosophy of science |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-64339-2 |oclc=876723188}}</ref> A [[Replicator (evolution unit)|replicator]] is a pattern that can influence its surroundings – that is, it has [[Causality|causal agency]] – and can propagate. This proposal resulted in debate among anthropologists, sociologists, biologists, and scientists of other disciplines. Dawkins did not provide a comprehensive explanation of how replication of units of information in the brain controls human behaviour and culture, as the main focus of the book was on gene expression. Dawkins apparently did not intend to present a comprehensive theory of ''memetics'' in ''The Selfish Gene'', but rather coined the term ''meme'' in a speculative spirit.{{Citation needed|date=April 2024}} Accordingly, different researchers came to define the term "unit of information" in different ways.

The evolutionary model of cultural information transfer is based on the concept that memes&mdash;units of information&mdash;have an independent existence, are self-replicating, and are subject to selective evolution through environmental forces.<ref name="Polichak">{{Cite book |last=Shermer |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gr4snwg7iaEC&pg=PA664 |title=The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience: [2 Volumes] |date=2002-11-14 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-653-8 |language=en}}</ref> Starting from a proposition put forward in the writings of Dawkins, this model has formed the basis of a new area of study, one that looks at the self-replicating units of culture. It has been proposed that just as memes are analogous to genes, memetics is analogous to genetics.

The modern memetics movement dates from the mid-1980s. A January 1983 "[[Metamagical Themas]]" column<ref name="Metamagical Themas">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o8jzWF7rD6oC&q=On+viral+sentences+and+self-replicating+structures&pg=PA49|title=Metamagical themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern |via=Google Books|date=1996-04-04|access-date=2010-02-18|isbn=978-0-465-04566-2|last1=Hofstadter|first1=Douglas|publisher=Basic Books}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}<br/><br/>

NOTE: If the above proves to be a "Dead link", – as the note attached since "August 2023" seems to be saying, then ... it might help to just go to https://books.google.com/books?id=NSpMDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=o8jzWF7rD6oC#v=onepage&q&f=false , and scroll down for a few pages, (to the "'''''Short Contents'''''"), and then click on the hyperlink there – [right after the links to the first '''two''' chapters] – the one [hyperlink] that points to the third chapter, which is displayed as "'''3. On Viral Sentences and Self-Replicating Structures'''". It might have been simpler – that is, a better 'work-around' – to just include a direct URL here, that a reader could click on, but ... the [editor] author of this "NOTE" did not understand [how to figure out] how to do that (at least, ... not without following the 'suggestion' contained in the last 3 words of the legend <br/>
::::"No preview available for this page. [https://books.google.com/books?id=NSpMDQAAQBAJ&dq=o8jzWF7rD6oC&sitesec=buy&source=gbs_snippet#v=onepage&q=essence&f=false Buy this book]"
which [legend] sometimes tended to appear – several times – during some of the 'failed attempts' to find a better 'work-around'.)

</ref> by [[Douglas Hofstadter]], in ''Scientific American'', was influential – as was his 1985 book of the same name. "Memeticist" was coined as analogous to "geneticist" – originally in ''The Selfish Gene.'' Later Arel Lucas suggested that the discipline that studies memes and their connections to human and other carriers of them be known as "memetics" by analogy with "genetics".<ref name="Metamagical Themas"/> Dawkins' ''The Selfish Gene'' has been a factor in attracting the attention of people of disparate intellectual backgrounds. Another stimulus was the publication in 1991 of ''[[Consciousness Explained]]'' by Tufts University philosopher [[Daniel Dennett]], which incorporated the meme concept into a [[theory of mind|theory of the mind]]. In his 1991 essay "[[Viruses of the Mind]]", Richard Dawkins used memetics to explain the phenomenon of religious belief and the various characteristics of organised religions. By then, memetics had also become a theme appearing in fiction (e.g. Neal Stephenson's ''[[Snow Crash]]'').

The idea of ''language as a virus'' had already been introduced by [[William S. Burroughs]] as early as 1962 in his novel ''[[The Ticket That Exploded]]'', and continued in ''[[The Electronic Revolution]]'', published in 1970 in ''[[The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs|The Job]]''.

The foundation of memetics in its full modern incarnation was launched by [[Douglas Rushkoff|Douglas Rushkoff's]] ''Media Virus: Hidden Agendas in Popular Culture'' in 1995,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rushkoff.com/books/media-virus/|title=Media Virus!|website=Rushkoff|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=13 June 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613125930/https://rushkoff.com/books/media-virus/|url-status=live}}</ref> and was accelerated with the publication in 1996 of two more books by authors outside the academic mainstream: ''Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme'' by former [[Microsoft]] executive turned motivational speaker and professional poker-player [[Richard Brodie (programmer)|Richard Brodie]], and ''Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads Through Society'' by [[Aaron Lynch (writer)|Aaron Lynch]], a mathematician and philosopher who worked for many years as an engineer at [[Fermilab]]. Lynch claimed to have conceived his theory totally independently of any contact with academics in the cultural evolutionary sphere, and apparently was not aware of ''The Selfish Gene'' until his book was very close to publication.{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}}

Around the same time as the publication of the books by Lynch and Brodie the e-journal ''Journal of Memetics – Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission''<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/ |title=''Journal of Memetics – Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission'' |access-date=2009-09-29 |archive-date=2011-08-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810103732/http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> (published electronically from 1997 to 2005<ref name="MemeticsIssues">{{cite web|url=http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/issues.html|title=Index to all JoM-EMIT Issues|access-date=2009-10-27|work=Journal of Memetics|archive-date=2011-08-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810120049/http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/issues.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>) first appeared. It was first hosted by the Centre for Policy Modelling at [[Manchester Metropolitan University]]. The e-journal soon became the central point for publication and debate within the nascent memeticist community. (There had been a short-lived paper-based memetics publication starting in 1990, the ''Journal of Ideas'' edited by Elan Moritz.<ref name="autogenerated1991">{{cite web|url=http://archsix.com/omega23.com/Journal_of_Ideas/|title=The Journal of Ideas (ISSN 1049-6335): Contents|website=archsix.com|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=9 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009041821/http://archsix.com/omega23.com/Journal_of_Ideas/|url-status=live}}</ref>) In 1999, [[Susan Blackmore]], a psychologist at the [[University of the West of England]], published ''[[The Meme Machine]]'', which more fully worked out the ideas of Dennett, Lynch, and Brodie and attempted to compare and contrast them with various approaches from the cultural evolutionary mainstream, as well as providing novel (and controversial) memetics-based theories for the evolution of language and the human sense of individual selfhood.

=== Etymology ===
The term ''meme'' derives from the [[Greek language|Ancient Greek]] μιμητής (''mimētḗs''), meaning "imitator, pretender". The similar term ''mneme'' was used in 1904, by the German evolutionary biologist [[Richard Semon]], best known for his development of the [[engram (neuropsychology)|engram]] theory of [[memory]], in his work ''Die mnemischen Empfindungen in ihren Beziehungen zu den Originalempfindungen'', translated into English in 1921 as ''The Mneme''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Semon |first1=Richard Wolfgang |title=The Mneme |date=1921 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924100387210/page/n10 |access-date=17 June 2019}}</ref> Until [[Daniel Schacter]] published ''Forgotten Ideas, Neglected Pioneers: Richard Semon and the Story of Memory'' in 2000, Semon's work had little influence, though it was quoted extensively in [[Erwin Schrödinger]]’s 1956 [[Tarner Lecture]] “[[What is Life? (Schrödinger)|Mind and Matter]]”. Richard Dawkins (1976) apparently coined the word ''meme'' independently of Semon, writing this:
<blockquote>{{"'}}Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to 'memory', or to the French word même."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EJeHTt8hW7UC&q=%22'Mimeme'+comes+from+a+suitable+Greek+root,+but+I+want+a+monosyllable+that+sounds+a+bit+like+'gene'.+I+hope+my+classicist+friends+will+forgive+me+if+I+abbreviate+mimeme+to+meme.+If+it+is+any+consolation,+it+could+alternatively+be+thought+of+as+being+related+to+'memory',+or+to+the+French+word+m%C3%AAme.%22&pg=PA192|title=The Selfish Gene: 30th Anniversary edition|last=Dawkins|first=Richard|date=2006-03-16|publisher=Oxford UP|isbn=9780191537554|pages=182|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>[[David Hull (philosopher)|David Hull]] (2001) pointed out Dawkins's oversight of Semon's work. Hull suggests this early work as an alternative origin to memetics by which Dawkins's memetic theory and classicist connection to the concept can be negotiated.<blockquote>"Why not date the beginnings of memetics (or mnemetics) as 1904 or at the very least 1914? If [Semon's] two publications are taken as the beginnings of memetics, then the development of memetics [...] has been around for almost a hundred years without much in the way of conceptual or empirical advance!"<ref name="Hull 43–67">{{Citation |last=Hull |first=David L. |title=Taking memetics seriously: Memetics will be what we make it |date=2001-01-04 |work=Darwinizing CultureThe Status of Memetics as a Science |pages=43–67 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192632449.003.0003 |access-date=2022-12-18 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780192632449.003.0003 |isbn=978-0-19-263244-9|url-access=subscription }}</ref></blockquote>Despite this, Semon's work remains mostly understood as distinct to memetic origins even with the overt similarities accounted for by Hull.

===Internalists and externalists===
The memetics movement split almost immediately into two. The first group were those who wanted to stick to Dawkins' definition of a meme as "a unit of [[cultural transmission]]". Gibron Burchett, a memeticist responsible for helping to research and co-coin the term [[memetic engineering]], along with Leveious Rolando and Larry Lottman, has stated that a meme can be defined, more precisely, as "a unit of [[cultural]] [[information]] that can be copied, located in the brain". This thinking is more in line with Dawkins' second definition of the meme in his book ''[[The Extended Phenotype]]''. The second group wants to redefine memes as observable [[cultural artifact]]s and behaviors. However, in contrast to those two positions, the article "Consciousness in meme machines" by Susan Blackmore rejects neither movement.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Blackmore|first=Susan|author-link=Susan Blackmore |date=2003|title=Consciousness in meme machines|journal=Journal of Consciousness Studies|publisher=Imprint Academic}}</ref> Andrej Drapal<ref>MEMETICS, Truth and Freedom as Ontological, Phenomenological, and Epistemological Concepts Elucidated by Memetics</ref> tried to bridge the gap with his differentiation of memes as quantum entities existing per se in quantum superposition and collapsing when detected by brains from cultural artifacts. Memes are to artifacts as genotypes are to phenotypes.

These two schools became known as the "internalists" and the "externalists." Prominent internalists included both Lynch and Brodie; the most vocal externalists included Derek Gatherer, a geneticist from [[Liverpool John Moores University]], and William Benzon, a writer on cultural evolution and music. The main rationale for externalism was that internal brain entities are not observable, and memetics cannot advance as a science, especially a [[quantitative research|quantitative]] science, unless it moves its emphasis onto the directly quantifiable aspects of culture. Internalists countered with various arguments: that brain states will eventually be directly observable with advanced technology, that most cultural anthropologists agree that culture is about [[belief]]s and not artifacts, or that artifacts cannot be replicators in the same sense as mental entities (or DNA) are replicators. The debate became so heated that a 1998 Symposium on Memetics, organised as part of the 15th International Conference on [[Cybernetics]], passed a motion calling for an end to definitional debates. McNamara demonstrated in 2011 that functional connectivity profiling using neuroimaging tools enables the observation of the processing of internal memes, "i-memes", in response to external "e-memes".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=McNamara|first1=Adam|title=Can we Measure Memes?|journal=Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience|date=2011|doi=10.3389/fnevo.2011.00001|pmc=3118481|pmid=21720531|volume=3|page=1|doi-access=free}}</ref>
This was developed further in a paper "Memetics and Neural Models of Conspiracy Theories" by Duch, where a model of memes as a quasi-stable neural associative memory [[attractor network]] is proposed, and a formation of [[Memeplex]] leading to conspiracy theories illustrated with the simulation of a self-organizing network.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Duch|first1=Włodzisław|title=Memetics and Neural Models of Conspiracy Theories|journal=Patterns|date=2021|doi=10.1016/j.patter.2021.100353|pmc=8600249|pmid=34820645|volume=2|issue=11|article-number=100353|doi-access=free}}</ref>

An advanced statement of the internalist school came in 2002 with the publication of ''The Electric Meme'', by Robert Aunger, an anthropologist from the [[University of Cambridge]]. Aunger also organised a conference in Cambridge in 1999, at which prominent sociologists and anthropologists were able to give their assessment of the progress made in memetics to that date. This resulted in the publication of ''Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science'', edited by Aunger and with a foreword by Dennett, in 2001.<ref>Aunger, Robert. "Darwinizing culture: The status of memetics as a science." (2001).</ref>

===Decline===
In 2005, the ''Journal of Memetics'' ceased publication and published a set of articles on the future of memetics. The website states that although "there was to be a relaunch... after several years nothing has happened".<ref name="JoMFrontpage">{{cite web|title=Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission|url=http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/|work=Journal of Memetics|access-date=17 September 2010|archive-date=10 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810103732/http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Susan Blackmore]] left the University of the West of England to become a freelance science-writer and now concentrates more on the field of consciousness and cognitive science. Derek Gatherer moved to work as a computer programmer in the pharmaceutical industry, although he still occasionally publishes on memetics-related matters. [[Richard Brodie (programmer)|Richard Brodie]] is now climbing the world professional poker rankings. [[Aaron Lynch (writer)|Aaron Lynch]] disowned the memetics community and the words "meme" and "memetics" (without disowning the ideas in his book), adopting the self-description "thought contagionist". He died in 2005.

[[Susan Blackmore]] (2002) re-stated the definition of meme as: whatever is copied from one person to another person, whether habits, skills, songs, stories, or any other kind of information. Further she said that memes, like genes, are replicators in the sense as defined by Dawkins.<ref>[[Richard Dawkins|Dawkins, R.]] (1982) [http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/dawkins_replicators.html "Replicators and Vehicles"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226171250/http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/dawkins_replicators.html |date=2021-02-26}} King's College Sociobiology Group, eds., ''Current Problems in Sociobiology'', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp.&nbsp;45–64. "A replicator may be defined as any entity in the universe of which copies are made."</ref>
That is, they are information that is copied. Memes are copied by [[imitation]], teaching and other methods. The copies are not perfect: memes are copied with variation; moreover, they compete for space in our memories and for the chance to be copied again. Only some of the variants can survive. The combination of these three elements (copies; variation; competition for survival) forms precisely the condition for [[Darwinian evolution]], and so memes (and hence human cultures) evolve. Large groups of memes that are copied and passed on together are called [[co-adapted]] meme complexes, or ''[[memeplexes]]''. In Blackmore's definition, the way that a meme replicates is through imitation. This requires [[Human brain|brain]] capacity to generally imitate a model or selectively imitate the model. Since the process of social learning varies from one person to another, the imitation process cannot be said to be completely imitated. The sameness of an idea may be expressed with different memes supporting it. This is to say that the [[mutation]] rate in memetic evolution is extremely high, and mutations are even possible within each and every iteration of the imitation process. It becomes very interesting when we see that a social system composed of a complex network of microinteractions exists, but at the macro level an order emerges to create culture.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

Many researchers of cultural evolution regard memetic theory of this time a failed paradigm superseded by [[dual inheritance theory]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Radim Chvaja|title=Why Did Memetics Fail? Comparative Case Study.|journal=Perspectives on Science|year=2020|volume=28|issue=4|pages=542–570|doi=10.1162/posc_a_00350|doi-access=free}}</ref> Others instead suggest it is not superseded but rather holds a small but distinct intellectual space in cultural evolutionary theory.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Cao |first=Rosa |date=December 2020 |title=Crowding out Memetic Explanation |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S003182480001655X/type/journal_article |journal=Philosophy of Science |language=en |volume=87 |issue=5 |pages=1160–1171 |doi=10.1086/710518 |issn=0031-8248 |s2cid=225622281|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== "Internet Memetics" ===
{{See also|Internet meme}}
A new framework of ''Internet Memetics'' initially borrowed Blackmore's conceptual developments but is effectively a data-driven approach, focusing on digital artifacts. This was led primarily by conceptual developments Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel (2006) <ref>{{Cite book |first=Colin |last=Lankshear |title=New literacies everyday practices and social learning |date=2011 |publisher=Open University Press |isbn=978-1-283-26917-9 |oclc=1306561905}}</ref> and [[Limor Shifman]] and Mike Thelwall (2009).<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Shifman |first1=Limor |last2=Thelwall |first2=Mike |date=December 2009 |title=Assessing global diffusion with Web memetics: The spread and evolution of a popular joke |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.21185 |journal=Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology |language=en |volume=60 |issue=12 |pages=2567–2576 |doi=10.1002/asi.21185 |access-date=2022-12-18 |archive-date=2022-12-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221218223827/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.21185 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Shifman, in particular, followed Susan Blackmore in rejecting the internalist and externalist debate, however did not offer a clear connection to prior evolutionary frameworks. Later in 2014, she rejected the historical relevance of "information" to memetics. Instead of memes being ''units of cultural information'', she argued information is exclusively delegated to be "the ways in which addressers position themselves in relation to [a meme instance's] text, its linguistic codes, the addressees, and other potential speakers."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Shifman |first=Limor |title=Memes in digital culture |date=2014 |isbn=978-1-4619-4733-2 |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |oclc=860711989 }}</ref> This is what she called ''stance,'' which is analytically distinguished from the ''content'' and ''form'' of her meme. As such, Shifman's developments can be seen as critical to Dawkins's meme, but also as a somewhat distinct conceptualization of the meme as a communicative system dependent on the internet and social media platforms. By introducing memetics as an internet study there has been a rise in empirical research. That is, memetics in this conceptualization has been notably testable by the application of social science methodologies. It has been popular enough that following Lankshear and Knobel's (2019) review of empirical trends, they warn those interested in memetics that theoretical development should not be ignored, concluding that, <blockquote>"[R]ight now would be a good time for anyone seriously interested in memes to revisit Dawkins’ work in light of how internet memes have evolved over the past three decades and reflect on what most merits careful and conscientious research attention."<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lankshear |first1=Colin |last2=Knobel |first2=Michele |date=2019 |title=Memes, Macros, Meaning, and Menace: Some Trends in Internet Memes |journal=The Journal of Communication and Media Studies |volume=4 |issue=4 |pages=43–57 |doi=10.18848/2470-9247/cgp/v04i04/43-57 |s2cid=214369629 |issn=2470-9247|doi-access=free }}</ref></blockquote>As Lankshear and Knobel show, the Internet Memetic reconceptualization is limited in addressing long-standing memetic theory concerns. It is not clear that existing Internet Memetic theory's departure from conceptual dichotomies between internalist and externalist debate are compatible with most earlier concerns of memetics. Internet Memetics might be understood as a study without an agreed upon theory, as present research tends to focus on empirical developments answering theories of other areas of cultural research. It exists more as a set of distributed studies than a methodology, theory, field, or discipline, with a few exceptions such as Shifman and those closely following her motivating framework.

==Criticisms<!--This section is linked from [[Meme#Criticism of meme theory]]: do not rename without fixing incoming link or including an anchor to previous name ([[MOS:HEAD]])-->==
{{expand section|date=February 2021}}
Critics contend that some of the proponents' assertions are "untested, unsupported or incorrect."<ref name="Polichak" /> Most of the history of memetic criticism has been directed at Dawkins' earlier theory of memetics framed in ''The Selfish Gene.'' There have been some serious criticisms of memetics. Namely, there are a few key points on which most criticisms focus: mentalism, cultural determinism, Darwinian reduction, a lack of academic novelty, and a lack of empirical evidence of memetic mechanisms.

Luis Benitez-Bribiesca points to the lack of memetic mechanisms. He refers to the lack of a ''code script'' for memes which would suggest a genuine analogy to DNA in genes. He also suggests the meme mutation mechanism is too unstable which would render the evolutionary process chaotic. That is to say that the "unit of information" which traverses across minds is perhaps too flexible in meaning to be a realistic unit.<ref>Benitez-Bribiesca, Luis (2001): ''[https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/339/33905206.pdf Memetics: A dangerous idea] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704104711/http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/redalyc/pdf/339/33905206.pdf|date=2009-07-04}}''. Interciecia 26: 29–31, p. 29.</ref> As such, he calls memetics "a [[pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] [[dogma]]" and "a dangerous idea that poses a threat to the serious study of [[consciousness]] and cultural evolution" among other things.

Another criticism points to memetic triviality. That is, some have argued memetics is derivative of more rich areas of study. One of these cases comes from Peircian [[semiotics]], (e.g., Deacon,<ref>[[Terrence Deacon]], The trouble with memes (and what to do about it). ''The Semiotic Review of Books'' 10(3).</ref> Kull<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Kull | first1=Kalevi | author-link=Kalevi Kull | year=2000 | title=Copy versus translate, meme versus sign: development of biological textuality | journal=European Journal for Semiotic Studies | volume=12 | issue=1| pages=101–120}}</ref>) stating that the concept of meme is a less developed [[Sign (semiotics)|Sign]]. Meme is thus described in memetics as a sign without its triadic nature. Charles Sanders Peirce's semiotic theory involves a triadic structure: a sign (a reference to an object), an object (the thing being referred to), and an interpretant (the interpreting actor of a sign).  For Deacon and Kull, the meme is a degenerate sign, which includes only its ability of being copied. Accordingly, in the broadest sense, the objects of copying are memes, whereas the objects of translation and interpretation are signs.
<!-- This last paragraph could be better explained. I'm familiar with the subject but was confused. "Tdiadic nature" "degenerate sign" the article would benefit from clarification of these terms. This may not be the proper place to put this but I don't know if there is a discussion page for this article.

As of Dec 2022, I have added some details related to the initial semiotic critique of memes. -Jelly0wen -->

Others have pointed to the fact that memetics reduces genuine social and communicative activity to genetic arguments, and this cannot adequately describe cultural interactions between people. For example, [[Henry Jenkins]], Joshua Green, and Sam Ford, in their book ''Spreadable Media'' (2013), criticize Dawkins' idea of the meme, writing that "while the idea of the meme is a compelling one, it may not adequately account for how content circulates through participatory culture." The three authors also criticize other interpretations of memetics, especially those which describe memes as "self-replicating", because they ignore the fact that "culture is a human product and replicates through human agency."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Jenkins |first1=Henry |title=Spreadable Media |last2=Ford |first2=Sam |last3=Green |first3=Joshua |date=2013 |publisher=New York University Press |isbn=978-0-8147-4350-8 |series=Postmillennial pop |location=New York; London |page=19}}</ref> In doing so, they align more closely with Shifman's notion of Internet Memetics and her addition of the human agency of ''stance'' to describe participatory structure.

[[Mary Midgley]] criticizes memetics for at least two reasons:<ref>Midgley, Mary. The Solitary Self: Darwin and the Selfish Gene. Acumen, 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-84465-253-2}}</ref> 
{{block indent |1="One, culture is not best understood by examining its smallest parts, as culture is pattern-like, comparable to an ocean current. Many more factors, historical and others, should be taken into account than only whatever particle culture is built from. Two, if memes are not thoughts (and thus not cognitive phenomena), as Daniel C. Dennett insists in "[[Darwin's Dangerous Idea]]", then their [[Ontology|ontological]] status is open to question, and memeticists (who are also [[reductionism|reductionists]]) may be challenged whether memes even exist. Questions can extend to whether the idea of "meme" is itself a meme or is a true concept. Fundamentally, memetics is an attempt to produce knowledge through organic metaphors, which as such is a questionable research approach, as the application of metaphors has the effect of hiding that which does not fit within the realm of the metaphor. Rather than study actual reality, without preconceptions, memetics, as so many of the socio-biological explanations of society, believe that saying that the apple is like an orange is a valid analysis of the apple."<ref>[[Nancy Stepan|Stepan, Nancy L.]] Race and Gender: The Role of Analogy in Science. In Goldberg, David Theo (ed.) The Anatomy of Racism. University of Minnesota Press, 1990.</ref>}}

Like other critics, Maria Kronfeldner has criticized memetics for being based on an allegedly inaccurate analogy with the gene; alternately, she claims it is "heuristically trivial", being a mere redescription of what is already known without offering any useful novelty.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books/about/Darwinian_Creativity_and_Memetics.html?id=VxZOYgEACAAJ Kronfeldner, Maria. ''Darwinian Creativity and Memetics''. Acumen, 2011.]</ref>

==New developments==
{{synthesis|date=June 2015}}

===Alternative definitions===
*Dawkins, in ''[[A Devil's Chaplain]]'', expanded his definition of meme by saying there are actually two different types of memetic processes (controversial and informative). The first is a type of cultural idea, action, or expression, which does have high variance; for instance, a student of his who had inherited some of the mannerisms of [[Wittgenstein]]. The second type is a self-correcting meme that is highly resistant to mutation. As an example of this, he gives [[origami]] patterns taught to elementary students– the meme is either passed on in the exact sequence of instructions, or (in the case of a forgetful child) terminates. The self-correcting meme tends to not evolve, and to experience profound mutations in the rare event that it does.
*Another definition, given by [[Hokky Situngkir]], tried to offer a more rigorous formalism for the meme, ''memeplexes'', and the ''[[deme (biology)|deme]]'', seeing the meme as a cultural unit in a cultural [[complex system]]. It is based on the Darwinian [[genetic algorithm]] with some modifications to account for the different patterns of evolution seen in genes and memes. In the method of memetics as the way to see culture as a [[complex adaptive system]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cogprints.org/4772/|title=On Selfish Memes: culture as complex adaptive system|author=Situngkir, Hokky|date=16 Mar 2006|access-date=2010-02-18|archive-date=2009-07-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090724043044/http://cogprints.org/4772/|url-status=live}}</ref> he describes a way to see memetics as an alternative methodology of cultural [[evolution]].
*DiCarlo (2010) developed the definition of meme further to include the idea of 'memetic equilibrium', which describe a culturally compatible state with [[Homeostasis|biological equilibrium]]. In "How Problem Solving and Neurotransmission in the Upper Paleolithic led to The Emergence and Maintenance of Memetic Equilibrium in Contemporary World Religions", DiCarlo argues that as human consciousness evolved and developed, so too did our ancestors' capacity to consider and attempt to solve environmental problems in more conceptually sophisticated ways. When a satisfactory solution is found, the feeling of environmental stability, or memetic equilibrium, is achieved. The relationship between a gradually emerging conscious awareness and sophisticated languages in which to formulate representations combined with the desire to maintain biological equilibrium, generated the necessity for equilibrium to fill in conceptual gaps in terms of understanding three very important aspects in the Upper Paleolithic: causality, morality, and mortality. The desire to explain phenomena in relation to maintaining survival and reproductive stasis, generated a normative stance in the minds of our ancestors—Survival/Reproductive Value (or S-R Value).
*Limor Shifman (2014) defines ''Internet memes'', memes in digitally mediated contexts, to be (a) a group of digital items sharing common characteristics of content, form, and/or stance, which (b) were created with awareness of each other, and (c) were circulated, imitated, and/or transformed via the Internet by many users.<ref>{{Citation |last=Shifman |first=Limor |title=Memes in digital culture |date=2014 |url= |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-1-4690-6325-6 |oclc=}}</ref> Further, she outlines ''content'' as "both ideas and ideologies", ''form'' as "the physical incarnation of the message", and ''stance'' as "the information memes convey about their own communication''."'' Stance is about how actors (e.g. people) position themselves in relation to content and form of the media as well as those who might be addressed by the message.
*Over a decade after Kull's and Deacon's semiotic critique, Sara Cannizzaro offered her own development to redeem memes as fully formed [[Biosemiotics|cybersemiotic]] signs which has had limited success among those adjacent to Internet Memetics.<ref name="Cannizzaro 562–586">{{Cite journal |last=Cannizzaro |first=Sara |date=2016-12-31 |title=Internet memes as internet signs: A semiotic view of digital culture |url=http://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2016.44.4.05 |journal=Sign Systems Studies |language=en |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=562–586 |doi=10.12697/SSS.2016.44.4.05 |issn=1736-7409 |s2cid=53374867 |doi-access=free |access-date=2022-12-18 |archive-date=2023-02-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201012712/https://ojs.utlib.ee/index.php/sss/article/view/SSS.2016.44.4.05 |url-status=live}}</ref> In particular, she translates many of the neo-Darwinian conceptualizations of evolution to biosemiotic evolutionary concepts. This approach was theoretically integrated with an empirical investigation of information in Alexander O. Smith and Jeff Hemsley's development. They suggested under the influence of Cannizzaro's work that memes are "an information transmission network of documents connected through their differences among similarities and is interpreted as a semiotic system".<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Alexander O. |last2=Hemsley |first2=Jeff |date=2022-08-09 |title=Memetics as informational difference: offering an information-centric conception of memes |url=https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JD-07-2021-0140/full/html |journal=Journal of Documentation |language=en |volume=78 |issue=5 |pages=1149–1163 |doi=10.1108/JD-07-2021-0140 |issn=0022-0418 |s2cid=252163642 |access-date=2022-12-18 |archive-date=2022-12-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221218202823/https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JD-07-2021-0140/full/html |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

===Memetic analysis===
*The possibility of quantitative analysis of memes using [[functional neuroimaging|neuroimaging]] tools and the suggestion that such studies have already been done was given by McNamara (2011).<ref name="mcnamara">{{harvnb|McNamara|2011}}</ref>  This author proposes [[hyperscanning]] (concurrent scanning of two communicating individuals in two separate MRI machines) as a key tool in the future for investigating memetics.
*Proponents of memetics as described in the ''Journal of Memetics'' (out of print since 2005<ref name=JOM>{{cite web|title=Journal of Memetics|url=http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/|access-date=10 March 2014|archive-date=10 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810103732/http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/|url-status=dead}}</ref>) believe that 'memetics' has the potential to be an important and promising analysis of culture using the framework of evolutionary concepts.
*[[Keith Henson]] in ''Memetics and the Modular-Mind'' (Analog Aug. 1987)<ref>{{cite web|author=Keith Henson View profile More options|url=http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.mindcontrol/msg/103e03bce6100cac?hl=en&|title=Promise Keepers: Is it a Cult? - alt.mindcontrol |via=Google Groups |date=1997-10-05|access-date=2010-02-18|archive-date=2014-03-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140310090600/http://groups.google.ca/group/alt.mindcontrol/msg/103e03bce6100cac?hl=en&|url-status=dead}}</ref> makes the case that memetics needs to incorporate [[evolutionary psychology]] to understand the psychological traits of a meme's host.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/cults.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120709131213/http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/cults.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-07-09|title=Sex, Drugs, and Cults by H. Keith Henson|publisher=Human-nature.com|access-date= 2010-02-18}}</ref>
*The primary analytic approaches of internet memetics has been more in association with visual culture and communication methodologies. These researchers justify the existence of memes by way of culturally association,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gal |first1=Noam |last2=Shifman |first2=Limor |last3=Kampf |first3=Zohar |date=September 2016 |title="It Gets Better": Internet memes and the construction of collective identity |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444814568784 |journal=New Media & Society |language=en |volume=18 |issue=8 |pages=1698–1714 |doi=10.1177/1461444814568784 |s2cid=206728484 |issn=1461-4448 |access-date=2023-07-16 |archive-date=2023-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230716013410/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444814568784 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> social networks<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shifman |first=Limor |date=December 2014 |title=The Cultural Logic of Photo-Based Meme Genres |journal=Journal of Visual Culture |language=en |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=340–358 |doi=10.1177/1470412914546577 |issn=1470-4129|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wiggins |first1=Bradley E |last2=Bowers |first2=G Bret |date=December 2015 |title=Memes as genre: A structurational analysis of the memescape |url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444814535194 |journal=New Media & Society |language=en |volume=17 |issue=11 |pages=1886–1906 |doi=10.1177/1461444814535194 |s2cid=30729349 |issn=1461-4448 |access-date=2023-07-16 |archive-date=2023-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230716013410/https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444814535194 |url-status=live|url-access=subscription }}</ref> or networked artifacts,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Segev |first1=Elad |last2=Nissenbaum |first2=Asaf |last3=Stolero |first3=Nathan |last4=Shifman |first4=Limor |date=July 2015 |title=Families and Networks of Internet Memes: The Relationship Between Cohesiveness, Uniqueness, and Quiddity Concreteness |journal=Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication |language=en |volume=20 |issue=4 |pages=417–433 |doi=10.1111/jcc4.12120|doi-access=free}}</ref> most notably online image artifacts.

==Applications==

{{Multiple issues |
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Research methodologies that apply memetics go by many names: [[Viral marketing]], cultural evolution, the history of ideas, social analytics, and more.  Many of these applications do not make reference to the literature on memes directly but are built upon the evolutionary lens of idea propagation that treats semantic units of culture as self-replicating and mutating patterns of information that are assumed to be relevant for scientific study.  For example, the field of public relations is filled with attempts to introduce new ideas and alter social discourse.  One means of doing this is to design a meme and deploy it through various media channels.  One historic example of applied memetics is the PR campaign conducted in 1991 as part of the build-up to the first Gulf War in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html|title=How PR Sold the War in the Persian Gulf|date=28 October 2004|website=PR Watch|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=27 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227033933/https://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy10.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The application of memetics to a difficult complex social system problem, environmental [[sustainability]], has recently been attempted at thwink.org<ref>[http://www.thwink.org/sustain/general/Memetics.htm thwink.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227073634/http://www.thwink.org/sustain/general/Memetics.htm |date=2021-02-27}}.</ref> Using meme types and memetic infection in several stock and flow simulation models, Jack Harich has demonstrated several interesting phenomena that are best, and perhaps only, explained by memes. One model, The Dueling Loops of the Political Powerplace,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thwink.org/sustain/articles/005/DuelingLoops_Paper.htm|title=The Dueling Loops of the Political Powerplace (paper)|website=www.thwink.org|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=21 August 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821232801/http://www.thwink.org/sustain/articles/005/DuelingLoops_Paper.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> argues that the fundamental reason corruption is the norm in politics is due to an inherent structural advantage of one feedback loop pitted against another. Another model, The Memetic Evolution of Solutions to Difficult Problems,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thwink.org/sustain/articles/007/MemeticEvolutionOfSolutions.htm|title=The Memetic Evolution of Solutions to Difficult Problems|website=www.thwink.org|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=21 August 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821232744/http://www.thwink.org/sustain/articles/007/MemeticEvolutionOfSolutions.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> uses memes, the [[evolutionary algorithm]], and the [[scientific method]] to show how complex solutions evolve over time and how that process can be improved. The insights gained from these models are being used to engineer memetic solution elements to the sustainability problem.

Another application of memetics in the sustainability space is the crowdfunded Climate Meme Project<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.climatememe.org/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121208023214/http://www.climatememe.org/|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 December 2012|title=Climate Meme - Applying Meme Science to Global Warming|date=8 December 2012|access-date=14 April 2019}}</ref> conducted by Joe Brewer and Balazs Laszlo Karafiath in the spring of 2013. This study was based on a collection of 1000 unique text-based expressions gathered from Twitter, Facebook, and structured interviews with climate activists. The major finding was that the global warming meme is not effective at spreading because it causes emotional duress in the minds of people who learn about it.  Five central tensions were revealed in the discourse about [climate change], each of which represents a resonance point through which dialogue can be engaged.  The tensions were Harmony/Disharmony (whether or not humans are part of the natural world), Survival/Extinction (envisioning the future as either apocalyptic collapse of civilization or total extinction of the human race), Cooperation/Conflict (regarding whether or not humanity can come together to solve global problems), Momentum/Hesitation (about whether or not we are making progress at the collective scale to [[climate change mitigation|address climate change]]), and Elitism/Heretic (a general sentiment that each side of the debate considers the experts of its opposition to be untrustworthy).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/1681526/using-memes-to-improve-climate-change-communication|title=Using Memes To Improve Climate Change Communication|first=Ben|last=Schiller|date=8 May 2013|website=Fast Company|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=7 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180207122652/https://www.fastcompany.com/1681526/using-memes-to-improve-climate-change-communication|url-status=live}}</ref>

Ben Cullen, in his book ''Contagious Ideas'',<ref name="Contagious Ideas">{{cite book | last1=Cullen | first1=Ben | title=Contagious Ideas: On evolution, culture, archaeology, and Cultural Virus Theory | publisher=[[Oxbow Books]] | date=2000 | location =Oxford and Oakville | isbn=978-1-84217-014-4}}</ref> brought the idea of the meme into the discipline of archaeology. He coined the term "Cultural Virus Theory", and used it to try to anchor archaeological theory in a neo-Darwinian paradigm. Archaeological memetics could assist the application of the meme concept to material culture in particular.

[[Francis Heylighen]] of the [[Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary Studies]] has postulated what he calls "memetic selection criteria". These criteria opened the way to a specialized field of ''applied memetics'' to find out if these selection criteria could stand the test of [[quantitative research|quantitative analyses]]. In 2003 Klaas Chielens carried out these tests in a master's thesis project on the testability of the selection criteria.

In ''Selfish Sounds and Linguistic Evolution'',<ref name="Selfish Sounds">{{cite book | last1=Ritt | first1=Nikolaus | title=Selfish Sounds and Linguistic Evolution: A Darwinian Approach to Language Change | publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] | date=July 5, 2004 | location=New York | isbn=978-0-521-82671-6}}</ref> Austrian linguist Nikolaus Ritt has attempted to operationalise memetic concepts and use them for the explanation of long term sound changes and change conspiracies in early English. It is argued that a generalised Darwinian framework for handling cultural change can provide explanations where established, speaker centred approaches fail to do so. The book makes comparatively concrete suggestions about the possible material structure of memes, and provides two empirically rich case studies.

Australian academic S.J. Whitty has argued that [[project management]] is a memeplex with the language and stories of its practitioners at its core.<ref>[http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv.php?pid=UQ:8801&dsID=sjw_ijpm_05.pdf A Memetic Paradigm of Project Management] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303184957/http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv.php?pid=UQ:8801&dsID=sjw_ijpm_05.pdf |date=2016-03-03}} (International Journal of Project Management, 23 (8) 575-583)</ref> This radical approach sees a project and its management as an illusion; a human construct about a collection of feelings, expectations, and sensations, which are created, fashioned, and labeled by the human brain. Whitty's approach requires project managers to consider that the reasons for using project management are not consciously driven to maximize profit, and are encouraged to consider project management as naturally occurring, self-serving, evolving process which shapes organizations for its own purpose.

Swedish political scientist Mikael Sandberg argues against "[[Lamarckism|Lamarckian]]" interpretations of institutional and technological evolution and studies creative innovation of [[information technologies]] in governmental and private organizations in Sweden in the 1990s from a memetic perspective.<ref>"The Evolution of IT Innovations in Swedish Organizations: A Darwinian Critique of ‘Lamarckian’ Institutional Economics", '''Journal of Evolutionary Economics''', vol. 17, No. 1 (Feb 2007)</ref> Comparing the effects of active ("Lamarckian") IT strategy versus user–producer interactivity (Darwinian co-evolution), evidence from Swedish organizations shows that co-evolutionary interactivity is almost four times as strong a factor behind IT creativity as the "Lamarckian" IT strategy.

==Terminology==
* [[Memeplex]] – (an abbreviation of meme-complex) is a collection or grouping of memes that have evolved into a mutually supportive or [[symbiosis|symbiotic]] relationship.<ref>Blackmore, Susan, 1999, The Meme Machine, Oxford University Press, Oxford, {{ISBN|0-19-850365-2}}</ref> Simply put, a meme-complex is a set of ideas that reinforce each other. Meme-complexes are roughly analogous to the symbiotic collection of individual [[gene]]s that make up the genetic codes of biological organisms. An example of a memeplex would be a [[religion]].
* [[Meme pool]] – a population of interbreeding memes.
* [[Memetic engineering]] – The process of deliberately creating memes, using engineering principles.
* [[Memetic algorithms]] – an approach to [[evolutionary computation]] that attempts to emulate cultural evolution in order to solve [[optimization problem]]s.
* [[Memetic computing]]
* Memotype – the actual information-content of a meme.<ref>Glenn Grant. ''A Memetic Lexicon''. Montreal. 1990</ref>
* Memeoid – a [[neologism]] for people who have been taken over by a meme to the extent that their own survival becomes inconsequential. Examples include [[kamikaze]]s, [[suicide bomber]]s and [[cult]] members who commit mass suicide. The term was apparently coined by H. [[Keith Henson]] in "Memes, L5 and the Religion of the Space Colonies," ''L5 News'', September 1985 pp.&nbsp;5–8,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cfpm.org/~majordom/memetics/2000/16177.html|title=Memetics discussion list archive (associated with Jom-EMIT): Two early meme papers of historical interest (1a)|website=cfpm.org|access-date=14 April 2019|archive-date=3 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103011617/http://cfpm.org/~majordom/memetics/2000/16177.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> and referenced in the expanded second edition of [[Richard Dawkins]]' book ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'' (p.&nbsp;330). In ''[[The Electronic Revolution]]'' [[William S. Burroughs]] writes: "the word has not been recognised as a virus because it has achieved a state of stable symbiosis with the host."
* Memetic equilibrium – the cultural equivalent of species biological equilibrium. It is that which humans strive for in terms of personal value with respect to cultural artefacts and ideas. The term was coined by Christopher diCarlo.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Christopher W. diCarlo |title=How Problem Solving and Neurotransmission in the Upper Paleolithic led to The Emergence and Maintenance of Memetic Equilibrium in Contemporary World Religions |url=http://www.politicsandculture.org/2010/04/27/how-problem-solving-and-neurotransmission-in-the-upper-paleolithic-led-to-the-emergence-and-maintenance-of-memetic-equilibrium-in-contemporary-world-religions/ |journal=Politics and Culture |issue=Special Evolutionary Issue |date=April 27, 2010 |access-date=August 25, 2010 |archive-date=August 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823191350/https://politicsandculture.org/2010/04/27/how-problem-solving-and-neurotransmission-in-the-upper-paleolithic-led-to-the-emergence-and-maintenance-of-memetic-equilibrium-in-contemporary-world-religions/ |url-status=dead}}</ref>
* Metamemetic thinking - coined by Diego Fontanive, is the thinking skill & cognitive training capable of making individuals acknowledge illogical memes.
* Eumemics - the belief and practice of deliberately improving the quality of the meme pool.
* Memocide - intentional action to eradicate a meme or memeplex from the population, either by killing its carriers or by censorship.
* [https://andrejdrapal.com/2024/11/14/memetic-fields-and-comprehension/ Memetic field] is a concept proposed by Andrej Drapal, that should, in accordance with his thesis of strategic memes as quanta, replace concepts of memetic pools and memeplexes.

==In popular culture==
Memetic phenomena are a prominent [[narrative device]] on the ''[[SCP Foundation|SCP Wiki]]'' collaborative writing project; anomalous memetic technology and hazards, as well as (more rarely) hostile memeplexes, are common elements of stories posted to the SCP Wiki. Of specific note is the novella [[There Is No Antimemetics Division]] by [[qntm|Sam Hughes]], whose story entirely revolves around the idea of anomalous ''anti-memes'' - memes that hinder their own spread, often by erasing themselves.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hynes |first=Seth Lukas |date=2026-01-11 |title=There Is No Antimemetics Division is a very modern novel that draws from a long literary and pop-culture legacy |url=https://www.thecurb.com.au/there-is-no-antimemetics-division-review-qntm/ |access-date=2026-03-25 |website=the Curb |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
{{div col}}
* {{annotated link|Baldwin effect}}
* {{annotated link|Cultural evolution}}
* {{annotated link|Cultural selection theory}}
* {{annotated link|Dual inheritance theory}}
* {{annotated link|Egregore}}
* {{annotated link|Evolutionary epistemology}}
* {{annotated link|Internet meme}}
* {{annotated link|Mentifact}}
* {{annotated link|Mimesis}}
* {{annotated link|Seme (semantics)}}
* {{annotated link|Social constructionism}}
* {{annotated link|Social osmosis}}
* {{annotated link|Sociofact}}
* {{annotated link|Universal Darwinism}}
{{div col end}}

==References==
<references />

==Sources==

* Apter, Emily (2019). [https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/octo_a_00366 Alphabetic Memes: Caricature, Satire, and Political Literacy in the Age of Trump] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200614113317/https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/octo_a_00366 |date=2020-06-14}} (PDF). [[October (journal)|OCTOBER Journal]] 170, Fall 2019, [[MIT Press]] Journal
*[[Thorsten Botz-Bornstein|Botz-Bornstein, Thorsten]] (2008). "Can Memes Play Games? Memetics and the Problem of Space" in T. Botz-Bornstein (ed.): ''Culture, Nature, Memes: Dynamic Cognitive Theories'' (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press), pp.&nbsp;142–156. 
*[[Robert Boyd (anthropologist)|Boyd, Robert]] & [[Peter Richerson|Richerson, Peter J.]] (1985). ''Culture and the Evolutionary Process''. [[University of Chicago Press]].  {{ISBN|978-0-226-06933-3}}
* Boyd, Rob & Richerson, Peter J. (2005). ''Not by Genes Alone: How Culture Transformed Human Evolution''. Chicago University Press. {{ISBN|0-226-71284-2}}
* {{Citation |last=Boyles |first=Robert James M. |year=2011 |title=The Enemy: A Thought Experiment on Patriarchies, Feminisms and Memes |journal=Feminista: Gender, Race, and Class in the Philippines |pages=53–64 |url=http://philpapers.org/archive/BOYTEA-2.pdf |place=Philippines |publisher=Anvil Publishing, Inc. |isbn=978-971-27-2594-4 |access-date=2016-09-18 |archive-date=2021-08-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823175954/https://philpapers.org/archive/BOYTEA-2.pdf |url-status=live}}
* DiCarlo, Christopher W. 2010. "How Problem Solving and Neurotransmission in the Upper Paleolithic led to The Emergence and Maintenance of Memetic Equilibrium in Contemporary World Religions." Politics and Culture. https://politicsandculture.org/2010/04/27/how-problem-solving-and-neurotransmission-in-the-upper-paleolithic-led-to-the-emergence-and-maintenance-of-memetic-equilibrium-in-contemporary-world-religions/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210823191350/https://politicsandculture.org/2010/04/27/how-problem-solving-and-neurotransmission-in-the-upper-paleolithic-led-to-the-emergence-and-maintenance-of-memetic-equilibrium-in-contemporary-world-religions/ |date=2021-08-23}}
* {{cite journal | last1=Cloak | first1=F.T. | year=1975 | title=Is a cultural ethology possible? | journal=Human Ecology | volume=3 | issue=3| pages=161–182 | doi=10.1007/bf01531639| bibcode=1975HumEc...3..161C | s2cid=144333714}}
* Edmonds, Bruce. 2002. "Three challenges for the survival of memetics." ''Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission'', 6. http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2002/vol6/edmonds_b_letter.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110503212951/http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2002/vol6/edmonds_b_letter.html |date=2011-05-03}}
* Edmonds, Bruce. 2005. "The revealed poverty of the gene-meme analogy – why memetics per se has failed." ''Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission'', 9. http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2005/vol9/edmonds_b.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210717110017/http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2005/vol9/edmonds_b.html |date=2021-07-17}}
* Heylighen F. & Chielens K. (2009): [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Memetics-Springer.pdf Evolution of Culture, Memetics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224212950/http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/Memetics-Springer.pdf |date=2021-02-24}}, in: Encyclopedia of Complexity and Systems Science, ed. B. Meyers (Springer)
* Houben, Jan E.M. "Memetics of Vedic Ritual, Morphology of the Agnistoma." Powerpoint presentation first presented at the Third International Vedic Workshop, Leiden 2002 www.academia.edu/7090834
* Houben, Jan E.M. "A Tradição Sânscrita entre Memética Védica e Cultura Literária." (In Portuguese) Revista Linguagem & Ensino, vol. 17 n. 2 (2014), p.&nbsp;441-469. www.rle.ucpel.tche.br/index.php/rle/article/view/1089/783
* ''[[The Selfish Gene]]'' by [[Richard Dawkins]], [[Oxford University Press]], 1976, 2nd edition, December 1989, hardcover, 352 pages, {{ISBN|0-19-217773-7}}; April 1992, {{ISBN|0-19-857519-X}}; trade paperback, September 1990, 352 pages, {{ISBN|0-19-286092-5}}
* Aunger, Robert. ''The Electric Meme: A New Theory of How We Think''. New York: Free Press, 2002.  {{ISBN|978-0-7432-0150-6}}
* ''[[The Meme Machine]]'' by [[Susan Blackmore]], Oxford University Press, 1999, hardcover {{ISBN|0-19-850365-2}}, trade paperback {{ISBN|0-9658817-8-4}}, May 2000, {{ISBN|0-19-286212-X}}
* [http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Annotations/DEFAULT.14.html The Ideology of Cybernetic Totalist Intellectuals] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126153719/http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Annotations/DEFAULT.14.html |date=2021-01-26}} an essay by [[Jaron Lanier]] which is very strongly critical of "meme totalists" who assert memes over bodies.
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20040312113022/http://cogprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/archive/00003471/ Culture as Complex Adaptive System]'' by Hokky Situngkir – formal interplays between memetics and cultural analysis.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20011221011004/http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/overview.html ''Journal of Memetics – Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission'']
* [[Richard Brodie (programmer)|Brodie, Richard]].'' Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme''. Seattle, Wash: Integral Press, 1996.  {{ISBN|978-0-9636001-1-0}}
* ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20061025214924/http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/jbalkin/cs.htm Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology]'' by [[Jack Balkin]] which uses memetics to explain the growth and spread of ideology.
* ''[http://www.frontiersin.org/evolutionary_neuroscience/10.3389/fnevo.2011.00001/abstract Can we Measure Memes?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523022552/http://www.frontiersin.org/evolutionary_neuroscience/10.3389/fnevo.2011.00001/abstract |date=2013-05-23}}'' by Adam McNamara which presents neuroimaging tools to measure memes.

==External links==
* [https://www.richarddawkins.net/2014/02/whats-in-a-meme/ "What’s in a Meme?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812215058/https://richarddawkins.net/2014/02/whats-in-a-meme/ |date=2021-08-12}} – Richard Dawkins Foundation

{{Evolutionary psychology}}

[[Category:Memetics| ]]
[[Category:1976 neologisms]]
[[Category:Concepts in epistemology]]
[[Category:Concepts in the philosophy of mind]]
[[Category:Concepts in the philosophy of science]]
[[Category:Genetics]]
[[Category:Mental content]]

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