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ANNOTATION:
Memes could be considered capable of reproducing
Memes are usually considered as akin to genes and therefore limited in their method(s) of propagation. What if memes were like semi-sentient creatures (or plants) and were capable of reproducing themselves at a more sophisticated level than the genes which Richard Dawkins based them on? Thus memes might be capable of having offspring which would be radically different from the 'parent' meme.I realise that this is an extension (perhaps an overextension) of the meme concept but as (what Ted Nelson and co describe as bivisible and bifollowable)linked texts (and therefore newly interlinked memes) begin to proliferate thus the idea of one way infection might begin to seem rather inadequate.Memes might begin to exhibit ever-more complex relationships such as memebirth where the tension between two separate memes in a particular part of the ideosphere resolves itself (or is resolved-- remember there are conscious self-willed meme engineers and memeticists out there) in the birth of a new meme which doesn't necessarily share all the characteristics of its parents but which is strong enough and distinct enough to survive in competition with them.Meme complexes are already accorded enough cogency and rationality to wage war hence the cold war between the marxist-leninist and liberal democratic meme complexes which was not a war of total memetic destruction.In conclusion (at last!) I believe that the conception of memes as infectious cultural viruses needs to be extended and revamped to deal with the somoewhat more predatory nature of modern-day memes like the world wide web.
Copyright© 1995 Principia Cybernetica -
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