The Science of Memes

My new book, “Memeology” is grounded in the science of memes. A meme is replicator – a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. The word is from a greek root – mimeme – abbreviated to “meme” so as to sound like “gene” – its genetic antecedent. Examples of memes include tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or software or of building arches.

The evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins proposed the idea in his 1976 book “The Selfish Gene”, where he compared the ideas or information that flows from one individual to another with that of genetic traits conveyed by genes. By replication, mutation and natural selection, weak ideas die off while strong ideas survive, thrive and evolve.

“I think that a new kind of replicator has recently emerged. . . . It is staring us in the face. It is still in its infancy, still drifting clumsily about in its primeval soup, but already it is achieving evolutionary change at a rate which leaves the old gene panting far behind.

“The new soup is the soup of human [including business] culture. We need a name for the new replicator, a noun which conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. ‘Mimeme’ comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like ‘gene’. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to ‘memory’, or to the French word même. It should be pronounced to rhyme with ‘cream’.

“Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain, via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.”

~ Richard Dawkins

“The intriguing magic of memes has spread throughout the spaces occupied by digital technology and media. Behaviours and ideas copied from person to person by imitation – memes – may have forced human genes to make us what we are today.”

~ Susan Blackmore

Classical (Darwinian) evolutionary theory, which focuses on inheritable traits of organisms, cannot directly account for the riches of the human experience. Expressed in modern terms, Darwinian theory holds that genes control the traits of organisms; over the course of many generations, genes that give their bearers a survival advantage and that favour production of many offspring (who will inherit the genes) tend to proliferate at the expense of others. The genes, then, essentially compete against one another, and those that are most proficient at being passed to the next generation gradually prosper.

Human nature can be explained by evolutionary theory, but only when we consider evolving memes as well as genes.

The Challenge

The upshot of all the above points to the challenge in changing collective assumptions and beliefs – the memes – of an organisation. Which organisation has the time to wait on the vicissitudes of fate for memes to replicate and mutate, and for selection to kick in to weed out the weak mutations in favour of the strong ones? Indeed, can we rely on the “strong memes” to be of benefit to the organisation at all? There’s plenty of examples of “strong memes” being downright unhelpful to the host organisation. For example, stack ranking, or performance evaluations, or the power of extrinsic motivators (bonuses), or Theory-X. And yes, new memes can spread fast. It’s the excision of the old, oppositional memes locked in as they are to the prevailing memeplex that takes the time.

“Thinking memetically gives rise to a new vision of the world of organisations, one that, when you “get” it, transforms everything. From the meme’s-eye view, every human is a machine for making more memes—a vehicle for propagation, an opportunity for replication and a resource to compete for. We are neither the slaves of our genes nor rational free agents creating culture, art, science and technology for our own happiness. Instead we are part of a vast evolutionary process in which memes are the evolving replicators and we are the meme machines.”

~ Susan Blackmore

Are you aware of the memes swimming around inside your organisation? And the influence they have over every aspect of your working – and personal – lives?

– Bob

Further Reading

Marshall, R.W. (2021). Memeology: Surfacing the Memes of Your Organisation. Falling Blossoms.
Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene. Oxford University Press.
Blackmore, S.J. (2000). The Meme Machine. Oxford University Press.
The Power of Memes. (2002, March 25). Dr Susan Blackmore. https://www.susanblackmore.uk/articles/the-power-of-memes/
Feyerabend, P. (2010). Against Method. Verso.

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