Win or Fail, the selfish meme

I’ve been reading Susan Blackmore’s  “The meme machine” over the past week, it’s interesting stuff with an introduction by Richard Dawkins, no less.

The concept of a meme has interested me for a long time now, well before I knew it even had a name, well before it actually did have a name.  Mr Dawkins coined term “meme” in his book, The Selfish Gene.  He did so because, he explains in the foreword, he needed a word and it’s close enough in sound and linguistic form to “gene” as to lend itself to similar manipulations. Genetics, Memetics, etc.

As a kid I noticed things, how language seemed infectious, how jokes seemed to grow wings.  Indeed, as is described in the book, imitation, habits, skills, behaviours, heck even footballers on the TV seemed to say “you know” every second sentence.  These damned “word viruses” got really tedious, didn’t anyone else noticed this? Who the heck came up with the idea of a flux capacitor anyway?

What of the physical memes of the 80s?  Rubik’s cubes, BMX bikes, Slinky, Simon, Astro Wars, Pac Man…..

These days we have internet equals and indeed superiors to all of these things.  From Mr Splashy Pants to Rick Rolling, memes are everywhere and nowhere. We’ve mapped the genome but can we map the memome?  Probably, up to a point.  The rate at which these things multiply is incredible.  Just consider the variables for one minute….

Memes can refer to themselves, or other memes, so you’d need a relational database to map them with many-to-many connections.  They can also be highly personal, one of the reasons they spread is because they strike a chord, it’s all in the timing.  So we might even need to record mood, time, place, other people’s reactions.

Whilst waiting for my wife this morning I started scratching down some notes, this is what I came up with (in ten minutes) :

Meme types

• viruses (eg. language)
• practical (eg. knowledge and skills transfer)
• funny
• rewarding/uplifting
• relational
• physical

Meme groups

• language
• cultural
• entertainment
• skill based
• educational

People have tried to record memes, track them down, possibly with guns…

1. people create dbs of quotes from famous people
2. people write books and articles
3. people post things to blogs?!
4. people accidentally create new memes in the process of recording old ones!

Certain unsightly individuals have even tried to roll their own…

1. many have tried and failed btw!  Their failure is noted by a meme called “FAIL!”
2. some are calculated (placed in quotes and speeches)
3. some are accidental (oops moments, or misguided inclusion)

What I’ve noticed about the genetic make up of a great meme…

1. an element of fun
2. an element of ownership
3. an element of connection (factual or personal)
4. a referral from a good source
5. a serious or touching response
6. a need or reason to pass it along (motivation)
7. a back story
8. a bit of ‘me’

Guess the type of meme :

1. ipod
2. dot dot dot
3. paper chains
4. afternoon tea
5. this little piggy…
6. the hartlepool monkey

I’ll end on a recommendation for Susan’s book, Richard’s book too, and a self referential meme…

“monkey see, monkey do”

…now off you go and write a blog post, or do some “googling” for memes.