Meme
= an information pattern, held in an individual's memory, which is capable of being copied to another individual's memory [1]
Description
From the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
"The term "meme", coined in 1976 by Richard Dawkins, refers to a replicator of cultural information that one mind transmits (verbally or by demonstration) to another mind. Dawkins said, Examples of memes are tunes, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Other examples include deities, concepts, ideas, theories, opinions, beliefs, practices, habits, dances and moods which propagate within a culture. A meme propagates itself as a unit of cultural evolution analogous in many ways to the gene (the unit of genetic information"
The study of memes and their transmission is the subject of Memetics
The four stages of successful meme replication
"Assimilation. The meme is noticed, understood and accepted by someone, who becomes a host of the meme.
Retention. It's embedded in memory. The longer it's stored there, the better.
Expression. The idea can take some form, such as language, text, pictures, or even in unconscious behavior, such as the way someone walks.
Transmission. The host passes the meme on to one or more people." (http://notetaker.typepad.com/cgm/2006/12/at_the_most_rec.html)
More Information
- Hacking Memes, on counter-memetic warfare, by Stephen Downes, at
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue4_10/downes/index.html