History of Meme

	Revision 16 . . (edit) December 1, 2001 3:20 am by Lee Daniel Crocker
	Revision 15 . . (edit) November 9, 2001 3:20 am by (logged).191.188.xxx
	Revision 13 . . November 4, 2001 4:43 am by (logged).94.176.xxx

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Difference (from prior major revision) (minor diff, author diff)

Changed: 1c1

The term meme (pronounced to rhyme with "dream") was coined by Richard Dawkins in the book [The Selfish Gene]? to mean roughly a unit of cultural evolution, analagous to gene, the unit of biological evolution. (The concept, however, predates the coining of the term; e.g. William S. Burroughs' assertion: 'Language is a virus'). Memes can represent parts of ideas, languages, tunes, designs, moral and esthetic values, skills, and anything else that is commonly learned and passed on to others. The study of memes is called memetics.

The term meme (pronounced to rhyme with "dream") was coined by Richard Dawkins in the book [The Selfish Gene]? to mean roughly a unit of cultural evolution, analagous to gene, the unit of biological evolution. (The concept, however, predates the coining of the term; for example, William S. Burroughs' assertion that "Language is a virus"). Memes can represent parts of ideas, languages, tunes, designs, moral and esthetic values, skills, and anything else that is commonly learned and passed on to others. The study of memes is called memetics.

Changed: 5c5

Evolution requires not only inheritance? and selection?, but also mutation, and memes clearly have this property as well. Ideas that get passed on may undergo changes that accumulate over time. [Folk tales]? and myths, for example, are often embellished in the retelling to make them more memorable--and therefore more likely to be retold again. More modern examples can be found in the various urban legends and hoax?es that circulate on the Internet, such as the Goodtimes virus warning.

Evolution requires not only inheritance? and selection?, but also mutation, and memes clearly have this property as well. Ideas that get passed on may undergo changes that accumulate over time. [Folk tales]? and myths, for example, are often embellished in the retelling to make them more memorable--and therefore more likely to be retold again. More modern examples can be found in the various urban legends and hoax?es that circulate on the Internet, such as the Goodtimes virus warning.

Changed: 11c11,14

[Principia Cybernetica]? holds a [[lexicon of memetics concepts]

[Principia Cybernetica]? holds a [lexicon of memetics concepts], comprising a list of different types of memes. See also Copycat.