Gourt > Science > Biology > Sociobiology > Memetics
Memetics is an approach to evolutionary models of information transfer based on the concept of the meme.
History of the term
The term comes from a transliteration of a Greek word and was used in 1904 by the German evolutionary biologist Richard Semon in his work Die Mnemische Empfindungen in ihren Beziehungen zu den Originalenempfindungen, translated into English in 1921 as The Mneme.
In his book The Selfish Gene (1976), the ethologist Richard Dawkins coined the slightly different term "meme" to describe a unit of human cultural evolution analogous to the gene, arguing that replication also happens in culture, albeit in a different sense. In his book, Dawkins contended that the meme is a unit of information residing in the brain and is the mutating replicator in human cultural evolution. It is a pattern that can influence its surroundings – that is, it has causal agency – and can propagate. This created great debate among sociologists, biologists, and scientists of other disciplines, because Dawkins himself did not provide a sufficient explanation of how the replication of units of information in the brain controls human behaviour and ultimately culture, since the principal topic of the book was genetics. 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. Accordingly, the term "unit of information" came to be defined in different ways by many scientists.
More on [ Memetics ]
Influence of male harassment and female competition on female feeding behaviour in a sexualasexual mating complex of mollies (Poecilia mexicana, P. formosa)
Heubel, KatjaPlath, Martin
Cooperatively breeding cichlid fish adjust their testis size but not sperm traits in relation to sperm competition risk
Awata, SatoshiTakeyama, TomohiroMakino, YoshimiKitamura, YukoKohda, Masanori
Sex differences in survival costs of reproduction in a promiscuous primate
Hoffman, ChristyRuiz-Lambides, AngelinaDavila, EdgarMaldonado, ElizabethGerald, MelissaMaestripieri, Dario
Structure of the social network and its influence on transmission dynamics in a honeybee colony
Naug, Dhruba
Behavioral diversification in a young species flock of pupfish (Cyprionodon spp.): shoaling and aggressive behavior
Plath, MartinStrecker, Ulrike
Sperm removal and ejaculate size correlate with chelae asymmetry in a freshwater crayfish species
Galeotti, PaoloRubolini, DiegoPupin, FabioSacchi, RobertoFasola, Mauro
Ecological sexual segregation in fallow deer (Dama dama): a multispatial and multitemporal approach
Ciuti, SimoneApollonio, Marco
Is female promiscuity constrained by the presence of her social mate? An experiment with bluethroats Luscinia svecica
Johnsen, ArildParn, HenrikFossoy, FrodeKleven, OddmundLaskemoen, TerjeLifjeld, Jan
Inspection of mob-calls as sources of predator information: response of migrant and resident birds in the Neotropics
Nocera, JosephTaylor, PhilipRatcliffe, Laurene
When is a male not a male? Sex recognition and choice in two sex-changing species
Ambrogio, OliviaPechenik, Jan
The anti-predator function of eyespots on camouflaged and conspicuous prey
Stevens, MartinStubbins, ClaireHardman, Chloe
Current analyses do not resolve whether extra-pair paternity is male or female driven
Eliassen, SigrunnKokko, Hanna
Factors predicting male fertilization success in an external fertilizer
Liljedal, StaleRudolfsen, GeirFolstad, Ivar
Prior encounters with the opposite sex affect male and female mating behavior in a wolf spider (Araneae, Lycosidae)
Wilder, ShawnRypstra, Ann
The effect of mirrors on African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) larval growth, development, and behavior
Gouchie, G.Roberts, L.Wassersug, R.
Association patterns among wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) reflect sex differences in cooperation
Gilby, IanWrangham, Richard
Journal of Memetics - Peer-reviewed e-journal dedicated, in general, to the evolution of cultural behaviors and, more specifically, to evolutionary models of information transmission.
Meta Description: [ Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission ]
Ethetics - The neobiological model iindicates that all living systems, genetic and memetic belong to the realm of biology, ethetics is the field which encompasses all self-perpetuating algorithmic structures, including genetics and memetics.
Meta Description: [ Neobiology asserts that all living systems, genetic and memetic belong to the realm of biology, ethetics is the tool used to explain such. ]
500
A Memetic Analysis of Policy Making - Presents a memetic framework for the analysis of policy making based on three concepts from evolutionary theory: interaction, replication, and lineage.
Meta Description: [ A paper in JoM-EMIT with the above title ]
Anders Transhuman Pages: Memetics - Collection of links and essays about memes: ideas and concepts viewed as living organisms. Includes sections on memetic theory, examples and applications, controversial issues, a lexicon and a brief bibliography.
Chapter 11 from Richard Dawkins, ``The Selfish Gene'' - The text that started off the science of memetics.
Colorless Green Homunculi by William L. Benzon - Dawkins had little to say about just where one might look in the brain to find memes and other memeticists have been content to follow him in that. Robert Aunger, an anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, believes that it is time memeticists end their agnosticism on this matter. To that purpose he has written an exposition of neuromemetics called The Electric Meme.
Meta Description: [ Dawkins had little to say about just where one might look in the brain to find memes and other memeticists have been content to follow him in that. Robert Aunger, an anthropologist at the University of Cambridge, believes that it is time memeticists end their agnosticism on this matter. To that p... ]
Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology - Information about a book that explains the development of ideology and human cultural understanding through the spread and evolution of memes and cultural know-how.
Meta Description: [ NONE ]
How can we die if we are not alive? - Explanation of memetics by analogy of computers.
Meta Description: [ Description and analysis
of 'memes' and memetics, with links to many reference
sites on the Internet. ]
Meme Central - FAQ, links, and a bookstore. (By Richard Brodie, author of the popular book on memetics, Virus of the Mind
Memento - The home page of the open source Memento project - a lightweight knowledge management system based on the principles of memetics.
Meta Description: [ The Memento project: knowledge management with memes ]
Memes - Susan Blackmore - A detailed site maintained by the psychologist and memeticist Susan Blackmore.
404
Memes: Self-Replicants or Mysticism? - Debate on memes between Aaron Lynch and Richard Barbrook.
Meta Description: [ Wired ]
Memesis symposium - Symposium on the Net.
MemeSpace - A virtual community for bright people who love memetics.
Meta Description: [ The mission of Memes.org is to look at culture, religion, science, entertainment, technology, politics, government, conspiracy, the environment, and the Internet through the lens of memes and memetics. ]
Memetics - A meme is a cognitive or behavioral pattern that can be transmitted from one individual to another one. References, links.
Memetics - A senior thesis on memetic selection criteria.
Memetics and Synthetic Intelligence Discussion Corner - Discussions of the quantitative analysis of cultural transfer, with focus on creativity, memes, replicators, language, ideas, evolution, computers, viruses, knowledge, artificial intelligence, brain and the mind.
Mind viruses in Russia - Internet review in Russian publication on memes, mind viruses and mind epidemics.
Structure of Memes - The main criticism that can be raised against the memetic approach is that memes are difficult to define. What are the elements or units that make up a meme? Does a meme correspond to a complete symphony, or to a symphonic movement, a melody, a musical phrase, or even a single note?
The Church of Virus - Virus is a collection of mutually-supporting ideas (a meme-complex) encompassing philosophy, science, technology, politics, and religion.
The Electric Meme - Information about the book by Robert Aunger.
UK Memes Central - Includes texts by Dr Susan Blackmore and links to other articles online.
| This topic is so interesting, I just had to make a short clip about it. ... | |
| Next Video | |
