Even if one accepts the memetic description, it still remains to
single out which memes have good potential for spreading. One can make
an analogy with biology. To be able to say something about the spread
of a gene in birds that affect their wings ornithologists need to know
about both population genetics and aerodynamics. Similarly, memeticists
need to complement the description of memes with a description of what
makes a meme easily absorbable by people other than the original
carrier.
Only the number of extant copies (and where those copies reside)
determine the measurable success of a gene or of a meme. A strong (but
not complete) correlation exists between genes that do well and genes
that have a positive effect on the organism which contains those genes.
And if we can restrict attention to memes normally interpreted as
statements of fact, then a correlation emerges between those memes that
do well and those that reflect reality. However, some genes and memes
do survive which owe their success to other factors. Similarly, a
correlation exists between successful memes of a technological/economic
nature and those that help the economy (such as slavery and free
markets (each in their day), for instance).
A gene's success in a body may stem from its attempt to bypass the
normal sexual lottery by making itself present in more than 50% of
zygotes in an organism. Some genes find other ways of having themselves
transmitted between cells. Hence multiple factors influence the
evolution of genes — not just the success of the species as a whole.
Similarly the evolutionary pressures on memes include much more than
just truth and economic success. Evolutionary pressures may include the
following:
1. Experience: If a meme does not correlate with an individual's
experience, then that individual has a reduced likelihood of
remembering that meme.
2. Pleasure/Pain: If a meme results in more pleasure or less pain
for its host then the host will have a greater likelihood of
remembering it.
3. Fear/Bribery: If a meme constitutes a threat then people may
become frightened into believing it. Similarly, if a meme promises some
future benefit then people may incline to believe it. The memes “if you
do X you will burn in hell” and “do Y and you will go to heaven”
provide examples. Memes which pass on the fear of a threat, of the
likelihood or effectiveness of a threat, that “something will happen if
you do such and such a thing”, have a high likelihood of success, and
may therefore replicate and remain in the meme-pool. They may assist in
this way in the survival of a thought, a theme or a philosophy within a
community.
4. Censorship: If an organisation destroys any retention-systems
containing a particular meme or otherwise controls the usage of that
meme, then that meme may suffer a selective disadvantage.
5. Economics: If people or organisations with economic influence
exhibit a particular meme, then the meme has a greater likelihood of
benefiting from a greater audience. If a meme tends to increase the
riches of an individual holding it, then that meme may spread because
of imitation. Such memes might include “Hard work is good” and “Put
number one first”.
6. Distinction: If the meme enables hearers to recognize and respect
tellers (as leaders, intelligent people, insightful, etc.), then the
meme has a greater chance of spreading. The erstwhile receivers will
want to become themselves tellers of the same meme (or of an
evolved/mutated version). Thus élite knowledge can provide a promotion
to élite status.
Memes, like genes, do not purposely do or want anything — they
either get replicated or not. Some meme systems have negative effects
on the host or on their host society, but humans generally have a
symbiotic relationship with these abstract entities.
Memes do not mutate in an exclusively passive way. The brain
inhabited by a meme system can carry out a sort of active modification
of a meme. One could draw an analogy with a cell's error-correction
systems, but they clearly function quite differently. In essence,
people create and modify memes almost continuously. One can modify,
manipulate, and create meme systems in thought, for instance through
internal dialogue. As soon as one opens one's mouth and says something
(or does something) that one has not copied (but that others can copy),
one has unleashed a novel meme. Thus, one could conclude that we all
perform the role of a memetic engineer to some degree (even if not
consciously).
This seems especially evident in modern society, more notably in the
scientific and philosophical realms and in the entertainment industry.
It has become standard practice for scientists and philosophers alike
to assemble memetic systems and to question their philosophical and
empirical integrity. On perceiving a flaw, one may seek theoretical
(mathematical/thought experiments/logic/analysis) or empirical
(experimental/observational) resolution. This happens in large part due
to the influence of some of the more “modern” philosophers of the past.
Over the last few hundred (or thousand) years, a “philosophy” or
paradigm has evolved and developed which benefits the societies in
which many embrace it. That philosophy includes the ethical, moral, and
scientific obligation to take nothing for granted and always to
question any new information one perceives. People following this
tradition have transformed the memetic base of modern science and
philosophy. These people include (just to name a scant few) Socrates,
Aristotle, Plato, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Albert Einstein, Karl Marx,
Benjamin Franklin and Karl Popper. Science accepts nothing as true
unless empirical evidence and observation suggests such “truth”
strongly and consistently. This entire procedure adheres to a meme
system that has evolved to the point of rejecting almost any absolute
truth-claim. This meme system now includes such novel analytical
paradigms as the scientific method and Dewey's Decision-Making model
(among many other meme-based systems) to help distinguish useful (or
truthful) meme systems from “bad” ones.
Francis Heylighen of the Center Leo Apostel for Interdisciplinary
Studies has postulated what he calls “memetic selection criteria”.
These criteria opened the way to a specialized field of applied
memetics to find out if these selection criteria could stand the test
of quantitative analyses. In 2003 Klaas Chielens carried out these
tests in a Masters thesis project on the testability of the selection
criteria.
Cultural materialism holds that the evolutionary pressures of
economy and ecology explain many aspects of human culture. For example,
the food taboos sometimes enshrined in religions - like the concepts of
sacred cows, kosher and halal - would have prospered because they
allowed the believing population to (say) live more hygienically and
thus survive longer than non-believers in environments possibly more
hostile to survival. A migration or a change of the economic
infrastructure could render the taboo neutral or even adverse.
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