Memetics (or memetics) is a theory that studies the content of mind based on the perspective of Darwinian evolution, which originated from Richard Dawkins
The Selfish Gene, published in 1976. [1] The purpose of memetics is to explore the social evolution model of cultural information dissemination.
Memes, similar to genes as biological genetic units, are the genetic units of culture. At present, meme is generally defined as "the cultural transmission process of an idea, behavior or style from one person to another." It includes religion, rumors, news, knowledge, ideas, habits, customs and even symbols, proverbs, terms, words and jokes. Memes exist in the minds of individuals and can reproduce themselves to spread in different people's ideological fields. The memetics part follows the evolution view of gene centered in genetics. Just like the survival of the fittest in genes, the success of a meme depends on the content influence and communication ability.
etymology
Richard Dawkins, a British evolutionary biologist, created the word meme in his book Selfish Genes, which originates from Greek mimeme (Imitation), in order to interact with genes gene The word is similar, shortened to meme 。 The academic behavior of studying memes is called memetics. Chinese translation includes Seeking Mother [2], Media Cause [3] [4], Meme [5], Cultural Gene [6], Myth [5], Mihm [7], Mimi, Mimi, Miyin, Mimu, etc., which are the units of cultural information transmission [5].
Theoretical history
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In his book Selfishness Gene, Richard Dawkins believes that although the way of perception is different, there is also a kind of reproduction in the cultural field. In the book, the author claims that meme, an information unit, resides in the brain and mutates and reproduces itself in the process of social evolution. Dawkins believes that there must be three conditions for evolution to occur:
Variation, or new changes to existing factors;
Inheritance and replication, or the potential to create replicas of existing factors;
The "quality" of difference, or the conditions that make one factor more or less adapt to the environment than other factors.
Dawkins stressed that as long as the three conditions are met, the process of evolution will occur naturally, and this evolution is not only applicable to organic factors such as genes. He believes that memes also have the attributes necessary for evolution. Therefore, the evolution of memes is not only similar to the evolution of genetics, but also has the phenomenon of natural selection. Dawkins also mentioned that all kinds of ideas are passed down from generation to generation. During the transmission iteration, these ideas are affected by the main body of information acquisition, either to enhance or reduce, or to affect the idea itself. For example, some cultures may have given birth to unique designs and processes for tool manufacturing, thus gaining a competitive advantage over peers. [8]
Because the book Selfish Genes is the theme of genetics, Dawkins did not give enough explanation on how memes reproduce in the human brain, control human behavior and ultimately affect cultural trends. This creative concept has caused a wave of controversy among sociologists, biologists and scientists in other disciplines, while memes are "information units" Dawkins didn't come up with the definition of ", but actually it came from other scholars.". The evolution theory of memetics is compatible with the characteristics of Darwinism and Lamarckism. Memes have the shadow of Lamarckism in the process of being inherited. When one party wants to obtain a specific meme, it will use inference more than complete replication. For example, when a person is learning how to forge nails, he only needs to observe the demonstration and imitate it, without imitating every detail in the whole process. [9]
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Meme propagation
Unlike genes that can only be copied in the gene body or passed on from parents to children, memes are spread between human brains through language and characters, including reading and learning. Memes can transmit life information vertically (through gene replication, from parents to offspring) or horizontally (such as viruses or other ways). When parents transmit information to their children, because the children have strong absorption ability, trust their parents, and contact their parents most of the time, the integrity of the information transmitted is better, but the speed is limited by the speed of reproduction. Malcolm Gladwell wrote: "The concept of meme is to compare the behavior of a crowd to a virus that infects other people." Memes can also replicate vertically or horizontally, and may have a long dormancy period. Meme spreads through the behavior generated by the host, and imitation is one of the important characteristics of meme reproduction. In addition to imitating other human visual behaviors, memes can also spread in the form of copying inanimate information records between humans, such as books and music scores. According to McNamara, memes can be divided into internal memes and external memes. [10] After observation, some researchers believe that the species on earth that replicate and transmit memes through imitation include hominids, dolphins and some birds (some birds imitate their parents and neighbors by learning to sing). [11]
Some people compare the spread of memes to the spread of diseases. Infectious phenomena in many societies, such as herd effect, hysteria spread, imitation crime
(Copycat crime), imitative suicide and other infectious imitations are regarded as examples of meme transmission. In addition, observers will
Imitative behavior is different from imitation under the influence of memes, such as yawning, laughing, etc. - it is regarded as innate behavior, rather than socialized learning. [11]
criticism
The consistency of gene replication is high, but the mutation rate of cultural learning may be high, and cultural innovation is usually not random, but gene mutation has no direction. [12]
Biological evolution depends on granular inheritance (genes that do not mix), but cultural inheritance may be mixed [13].
East Mayr, an evolutionary biologist, said that "meme" is a meaningless synonym of "concept". The concept will not stay in the same individual or generation all the time, and may stay in books for a long time. These characteristics are different from biological evolution, so the evolution of culture cannot be compared with biological evolution [14].
reference resources
- Burman, J. T. (2012). The misunderstanding of memes: Biography of an unscientific object, 1976–1999. Perspectives on Science, 20 (1), 75-104. [1] doi : 10.1162/POSC_a_00057
- ^ Selfish gene Beijing: CITIC Press 2012: 217. ISBN 9787508634159 .
- ^ Zhou Qinghua The new context of anti globalization Xiuwei Publishing (Xiuwei Information) April 2010 ISBN 9789862214220 .
- ^ {Zhou Qinghua. Language education in the post globalization era. National Taitung University (Xiuwei Agency). July 2011 ISBN 9789860281989 .
- ^ Go to: five five point one five point two matrix. Natural selection of music . 2009-12-22 [2009-12-22]. （ Original content Filed on November 1, 2013) Reference error: with name attribute "solidot20091222"
<ref> The tag is defined multiple times with different contents - ^ Translated by Chen Rongxia: The God Delusion
- ^ Douglas R. Hofstadter's anthology "On My Heart" includes some words of "Selfish Gene", and its translation (translated by Chen Luming) uses this translation name. ISBN 9787532723003
- ^ Go to: eight eight point one Dennett, Daniel. Consciousness Explained. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 1991. ISBN 0-316-18065-3 .
- ^ Dawkins, Richard. A Devil's Chaplain: Reflections on Hope, Lies, Science, and Love. Boston: Mariner Books. 2004: 263. ISBN 0-618-48539-2 .
- ^ McNamara, Adam. Can we Measure Memes. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience three . 2011. doi:10.3389/fnevo.2011.00001 .
- ^ Go to: eleven eleven point one Blackmore, Susan. Imitation and the definition of a meme (PDF). Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission. one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight
- ^ Benitez Bribiesca, Luis, Memetics: A dangerous idea (PDF), Interciencia: Revista de Ciencia y Technologia de América (Venezuela: Asociación Interciencia), January 2001, twenty-six (1): 29–31 [2010-02-11], ISSN 0378-1844 , （ Original content (PDF) Filed on July 4, 2009), If the mutation rate is high and takes place over short periods, as metrics predict, instead of selection, adaptation and survival a chaotic differentiation occurs due to the accumulation of errors
- ^ Orr, H. A. Dennett’s dangerous idea. Evolution. 1996, fifty (1): 467–472.
- ^ Mayr, Ernst. The objects of selection . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Stanford University's HighWire Press). 1997, ninety-four (6): 2091–2094 [2015-06-21]. PMC 33654 . PMID 9122151 . doi:10.1073/pnas.94.6.2091 . (Original content file November 15, 2013)
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