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2005-06-17 11:01 PM Meme misunderstanding Mood: lexically anal Read/Post Comments (1) |
I'd like to brain whomever turned the phrase "online survey chain letter" into the word "meme".
Meme: A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another (from the American Heritage Dictionary) A better definition is: Richard Dawkins's term for an idea considered as a replicator, especially with the connotation that memes parasitise people into propagating them much as viruses do. Memes can be considered the unit of cultural evolution. Ideas can evolve in a way analogous to biological evolution. Some ideas survive better than others; ideas can mutate through, for example, misunderstandings; and two ideas can recombine to produce a new idea involving elements of each parent idea. The term is used especially in the phrase "meme complex" denoting a group of mutually supporting memes that form an organised belief system, such as a religion. However, "meme" is often misused to mean "meme complex". Use of the term connotes acceptance of the idea that in humans (and presumably other tool- and language-using sophonts) cultural evolution by selection of adaptive ideas has become more important than biological evolution by selection of hereditary traits. Hackers find this idea congenial for tolerably obvious reasons. A Meme is an evolving idea or concept, passed from person to person, the cultural eqivalent to a biological gene. It is not a quiz of how far you've gone in sexual adventures, what books you've read, what food you like, or any questionaire that you got in an email. That cheapens a much more interesting, and important concept into chain junk mail. Oh well, I'm sure it'll become as much that as lose has become loose by a majority of typists on the internet. Read/Post Comments (1) Previous Entry :: Next Entry Back to Top |
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