Suggested Concepts in Memetics

Suggested Concepts in Memetics

Death by Mene

Memes are the results of cultural replication. Their goal is succeeding in being eternally imprinted, meant to outlive us. “Meme” is a term Richard Dawkins coined from another theory in sociobiology relating to the Latin word for ‘memory.’ How they succeed is an example of the analogy of genes having replication, fecundity, and propagation.

The feild of Memetics involves looking at the way meaning, values, epistemic acceptances, axiological, and ontological beliefs, (formulated from thoughts) and how they are transmitted. They look at the dynamics behind the goal of transmission of memes.

In the 1981 extension of The Selfish Gene, functions and goals of “meme-products” are more important than the origin of the meme, especially if the combination of (memeplexes such as belief system) prevents or interferes with allowing a person to think differently than the way they are trained and how they put information together (heuristic knowledge). Procedural / algorithmic thinking that contains heuristic knowledge is combined with memetic behaviors, like imitation and indoctrination, can lead to monological thinking and stagnation. However, if meme transition is favorable to evolution, it can be suggested and may be beneficial (like healthcare symbols).

Examples of how memes affect people, especially in regards to groupthink behaviors, ranges from neutral to futile or dangerous and fatal. In the field of Memetics, how action is associated with ideas leads to thr outcome for the person or group holding memes.

The most extreme result of meme-adoption without inquiring about the memes is physical death. Examples studies about from articles in Google Scholar that have been include eating disorders, Kamikaze pilots, and proposal of Psychiatric approaches to meme-directed syndromes.

“Cultural memes are not necessarily ``mind viruses`` as Dawkins has proposed. There are many positive cultural memes. Atheism for example, or secularism, or even women's rights... These are also cultural memes, (and have their respective groups or memeplexes). However, these are positive memes because through their social and mind-to-mind propagation, they spread beneficial ways of reasoning. So the replication of benevolent memes is a good thing that should not be prevented (Fontanive, 2023).”

The purpose of memetics, as a framework of analysis to comprehend things and ideas) and its use in psychology, cognitive approaches and social sciences (and education of course) should be that aimed at providing a solid approach so that people that have mastered these higher thinking skills can distinguish between positive and harmful memes so to empower the positive memes and reject the toxic ones.

For further study, it might be useful to hypothesis violent behavior with Memetics over the course of human history. The following is a list of correlation between the category of violence and memetic goals / functions:

Conflict had a minimal to zero memetic goal or functioning.

War is based on an idea of an opponent is created. A weapon is associated with the ideas of safety and belonging being met. Usually, opponents agree to fight, and doing so, they will accomplish a goal. Ideas or needs are confused with needs and ways to meet them.

Genocide entails that a group of people have an idea of replacing and dissolving opposing group of people and their ideas. They are deprived of resources, cultural artifacts, and a chance to defend themselves.

Genocide-suicide entails that the person has an idea to justify that idea by killing simultaneously as with taking their own life.

More context in this article, https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=112745

Reference List:

Leigh, H. (2010). Genes, memes, culture, and mental illness: Toward an integrative model. Springer Science & Business Media.

Lester, D. (2009). Memes and suicide. Psychological reports, 105(1), 3-10.

Personal communication with Diego Fontanive