[Buddha-l] Memes

[Dan Lusthaus]

Some online solutions for meme (which means more than "idea" -- it has to do with how that idea spreads in a culture):

1.
http://www.onelook.com/?w=meme&ls=a

a.. noun:   a cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one generation to another by nongenetic means (as by imitation) (Example: "Memes are the cultrual counterpart of genes") 

2.
http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/m5.htm#meme

A self-replicating unit of cultural meaning, as understood by biologist Richard Dawkins. Transmitted socially among individuals of different generations, memes evolve through processes of mutation and natural selection. Thus, for example, the jingles sung by children while skipping rope, the conventional standards for fashionable dress, and the notions comprising the "common-sense" view of the world are all passed on through time, gradually modifying without any deliberate guidance. 

Recommended Reading: Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford, 1990) {at Amazon.com}; Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme (DeVorss, 1995) {at Amazon.com}; Susan Blackmore and Richard Dawkins, The Meme Machine (Oxford, 2000) {at Amazon.com}; and Aaron Lynch, Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads Through Society (Basic, 1999) {at Amazon.com}. 

 
3.
http://foldoc.org/?meme

<philosophy> /meem/ [By analogy with "gene"] 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. 

See also memetic algorithm. 

4

.http://biotech.icmb.utexas.edu/search/dict-search2.html?bo1=AND&word=meme&search_type=normal&def=

 1. meme 
Author: Richard Dawkins 
Definition: 

  This term was coined by Dawkins in his books The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. On p. 158 of the latter book, he defines a meme as: 
	"[A]pattern of information that can thrive only in
	brains or the artificially manufactured products of
	brains, books, computers, [etc.]. [These replicators]
	can propagate themselves from brain to brain, from
	brain to book, from book to brain, from brain to
	computer [etc.]. As they propagate they can change --
	mutate. These mutants may be able to exert a kind of 
	influence that affects their own likelihood of being 
	propagated."5.http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/FLAOH/cbnhtml/glossary-M.html#memeMeme     A unit of cultural information that represents a basic idea that can be transferred from one individual to another, and subjected to mutation, crossover, and adaptation.6.http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/meme?view=ukmeme/meem/   . noun Biology an element of behaviour or culture passed on by imitation or other non-genetic means.   - DERIVATIVES memetic adjective.   - ORIGIN Greek mimema 'that which is imitated', on the pattern of gene.7.http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=memeronunciation: 'mEmFunction: nounEtymology: alteration of mimeme, from mim- (as in mimesis) + -eme: an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture8.http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/mno.htm#memememe [from Gk. mimema; shortening of mimeme] an idea which spreads (coined by Richard Dawkins, in The Selfish Gene)
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