This is the first of many parts of codifying Memetics into a more scientific field. It is a working draft.
This part will be focused on the ideas of memetic selection, evolution, and the life cycle of memes.
The Darwin Dichotomy
Memetics in the early days wanted to be taken seriously, and so they wholesale pilfered Darwin’s idea of natural selection. And on the surface it makes sense, memes have a fairly rapid evolutionary rate, and the “strongest” infects more hosts, which repeats the process.
Hence the frequent use of the phrase “viruses of the mind”. This wholesale adaptation of Darwinism has lead to the thinking of the Apex meme, memes which conquer minds with ease and occupy minds.
Yet, Memetic Darwinism fails upon closer inspection. The following is a systematic dismantling of Memetic Darwinism, and rebuilding the groundwork for memetics.
Dismantling Darwin and Can Memes Die?
One of the presuppositions of the Darwinist theory is that the weak will be culled for the strong. And perhaps the vast majority of the memes1 you know are the most honed. But every iteration before it lays latently waiting for its chance to infect you the host.
The memetic ecosystem is not limited by resources or even time, rather exposure.
Darwinian logic also fails the memetic ecosystem, where the Darwinian ecosystem is constrained by limited resources, the memetic one is limited only by individuals. The memetic ecosystem is not even limited by time, rather exposure. The previous memetic researchers believed that the mind can only occupy so many things, this is for conscious tasks. However not the case with memes, where passive exposure can implant. Marketers call the mere exposure effect.
Ideas do not follow Dunbar’s number of communal connections. You have hundreds if not thousands of ideas a day. From what to eat to lunch, to religion and where’s the best price for petrol. You do not need hefty analysis for what to eat or wear. Intensive thinking is rarely done for most, so the idea of resource expenditure is silly.
I choose what I think about or interact with some may counter, perhaps. But the World bombards you with its own agenda. People hate politics and economics and yet it is in their face every day. Even the monk cannot stop the pink elephant if told.
The Mind’s resources are endless, and so memes don’t die conventional deaths.
Memes never Die, they go Dormant.
The carcass of every meme doesn’t disappear, it remains as litter. Either on the Internet or in the physical world. From the file on your computer to that odd trinket people just can’t throw away.
In this sense, every meme is a landmine waiting for someone to trip over it.
Long “dead” memes frequently emerge themselves or from previous iterations as new groups discover and interact with them. This could not be the case under Darwinism. Previous iterations or evolutions don’t just magically reappear if there’s an Apex meme.
But what about Natural Selection?
Natural Selection of memes occurs when on a cultural level, but it is intelligient design when crafting MEMEs. for one doesn’t occur of some over others is occurring for selection of memetic traits, but not memes themselves.
The inability for Memes to die like Darwinian theory removes the “battle for survival” and resources amongst cohorts. It becomes a battle for exposure rather than resources.
The Apex Meme
Further inspection of the Apex meme also makes it fall flat. An Apex Meme, in Darwinian Theory like an Apex predator is designed for maximum efficiency. While you may remember Psy’s Gangnam Style or the more recent “Let’s Go Brandon”, they fade. This should not be the case if Memetics followed “Darwinian Logic”. The Apex would reign for long stretches of time. Yet they don’t last for even a few months at best.
Most “Apex Memes” are one trick ponies designed around Novelty. In contrast the Rickroll has continued to plague the internet for well over a decade with little iteration or adaption. It exists in a time capsule. Yet, it has not infected everyone.
While someone could argue that the cultural or information landscape changes so drastically it kills the Apex Meme, this is countered by the very existence of the Rick Roll.
If we then oppose the trait of longevity with efficiency (perhaps novelty). We must then tackle the ideas of Wojack, Pepe, and Rick Roll. Either all are anomalies or something more is at play.
Pepe and Wojack (more-so Pepe) have spawned their own cultures. They are honed endlessly and there is some novelty in that. Pepe and Wojack were also once “Apex” and were everywhere before the bans and the dedicated fanclub.
Under the Darwinian “Apex meme” framework these examples do not square, for these examples are not the hyper predators of the internet; such as the coloured dress.
To bridge the gap the virus model appears to be the better alternative. Quickly spread memes burn out due to lack of hosts. Ever mutating ones continue to plague the planet, but do so at a slower rate. If we take the virus model, we then get to the question.
What about immunity?
Memetic Immunity
Can one become immune to memes or propaganda?
The answer is more complicated, the you might imagine.
“Oh, I’ve seen that before” or “Cringe” are clear examples of memetic immunity. One represents prior infection, the other represents a competing meme or mimetic group. If something has played out, the novelty is gone and the host will no longer be an active host for spreading the meme, but be a host for its existence.
Memetic immunity is more akin to the phase that a person can no longer be counted on to spread the meme. Yet they remain a host of the meme because recognition remains a factor.2
Thus Recall is a factor for memetic survival. Without recall, the nagging “familiar face” will be the result. We touched on this above briefly with the mere exposure effect.
The Other form of memetic immunity is Obliviousness. The inability to recognize the signs or characteristics of something is its own form of immunity. This person cannot be a host in current form, but forever remains a potential host due to idiocy and realization.
To be immune to another groups memes and propaganda, requires both Recall and Recognition. You recognize the others memes, and your body reacts due to your memes programming elicits an immediate response. Disgust and revulsion are the two most often.
However, you are a host for the other tribes memes and you spread it in order to try and pass on your groups “immunity” all the while being an unsuspecting transmitter. This is Mimetic Conflict in a nutshell. Without memes, the Other cannot be understood or recognized.
With this understanding you cannot be “immune” to another tribes meme and be of sound mind. Anyone claiming so fails to recognize they have already been infected by the meme
How do Memes Die?
Memes have half-lives akin to radioactive material. Decay rates increase exponentially based upon number of hosts. Memes only truly die when all of their hosts die AND no material about the meme exists. Hence why it is so difficult for a meme to truly die. For the Internet is a forever archive of anything, and everything. Something from a hundred years ago is just as likely to reappear as a remix of yesterday's pop culture. This is known as a Memetic Hazard.
The Landmines mentioned above are Memetic Hazards. You can accidentally trip over them are reawaken a sleeping demon.
This also does not forgo the possibility that the meme can reemerge via natural emergence. The meme of Shakespeare’s Monkeys is a an encapsulation of Chaos Theory that will also never die.
It is due to these factors that to fully eradicate a meme in a short period of time requires a host with minimal recognition, but no understanding. Hence robots and/or child soldiers are the only two viable meme eradicators with minimal memetic hazard potential. This is for they lack understanding and context.
The Death of Context & Memes
If there is no context to the meme. Its hosts are all dead, and there is no explanation, the meme can also die. We look upon Ancient Egypt, the Mayans, and Mesopotamia, amongst others with puzzled understanding. We encounter their artifacts without any transfer. Undoubtably we’ve come across hundreds or thousands of memes without triggering any memetic hazards.
If we cannot interface with a meme it has nothing to latch onto. A more modern example is when you have a native speaker of a language communicates to a foreigner using an idiom, slang, or even a joke. The foreigner when first learning the language, like the archeologist has no interface to receive the meme. They look at you with bewilderment, as to both the meaning, and the cause and effect.
In this sense for a meme to spread the host interface must have all components of understanding for successful transfer.
Here’s another example:
The “In Soviet Russia Meme” is a parody of “If you have it so do we, but it’s inverted to the point of absurdity.” The meme making fun of the backwards, and over the top way Russians, particularly the Soviets did things. And the 1970’s Soviet World Fair washing machine debacle. However, if you told a child without that context a list of “In Soviet Russia” things they would believe you.
Thus Context is a main ingredient for the survival and death of memes.
Takeaways:
For memes to survive and thrive they need Context and Recall as components within an interface be it audio, visual or textual based. The more Novelty is relied upon the more it will be a flash in the pan.
Memes that are “eternal” are either self contained ala “Rick roll” or Adaptable ie: “Pepe” or “In Soviet Russia…” Both of these adaptable memes rely on subversion of the current thing giving them longevity.
A New Theory
Beyond the obvious understanding that MEMEs are created by intelligent design, their existence or meme existence does not follow Darwinian logic. Competition does not function the same way. It is a binary on two fronts: if the host is infected, and will they spread.
Basic virus model functions offer better understanding of growth and spread then do darwinian heritage trees.
The New Memetic theory must take this into account. The virus model at present moment seems to be a better use case.
For now
For a clear understanding and explanation Meme or meme is used to denote meme as an idea or basic unit of understanding. ie firetruck. MEME in all caps will be used to denote meme in terms of created content of the same name.
There’s a future study of memetics here, with dementia patients. What can they recognize, and what is the transfer between short and long term memory. The