As a first approximation, a meme is System behaviour that can be copied.
By copying concrete behaviour, a
Behavioural
Disposition gets transmitted between systems: “an idea, behaviour,
style, or usage … spreads from person to person within a culture”.Merriam-Webster
Thus memes can be understood as transmittable
behavioural dispositions.
This means memes are the units of
Cultural
Evolution. Importantly, and in deviation from the parallel with
genesWhich is how Dawkins (1976) first introduced the
concept.
,
Cultural
evolution is multilevel meme variation, selection and replication.
Higher-level, complex memes are sometimes called Memeplexes.
When we understand memes as participants in evolution, we can take
a “meme’s eye view”Blackmore (1999)
and treat the systems it is transmitted between as the
Environment
in which it survives and which it uses to do so. From this view, a meme
is an
Egregore.
References
- Dawkins (1976): The Selfish Gene
- Blackmore (1999): “Meme, Myself, I”
- Merriam-Webster: “Meme”