The term memetic association refers to the idea that memes herd. For
example, a meme for blue jeans includes memes for trouser-flies,
riveted clothing, blue dye, cotton clothing, belt-loops and double-sewn
seams. In this way, groups of memes can operate symbiotically (to use a
biological analogy) in the sense that they act for their mutual
benefit/survival. Via Wikipedia.
The phrase memetic drift (formed by analogy to genetic drift) refers
to the process of a meme changing as it replicates between one person
to another. Memetic drift increases when meme transmission occurs in an
awkward way. Very few memes show strong memetic inertia (the
characteristic of a meme to manifest in the same way and to have the
same impact regardless of who receives or transmits the meme). Memetic
inertia increases when the meme transfers along with mnemonic devices,
such as a rhyme, to preserve the memory of the meme prior to its
transmission. See Telephone (game) for one example of memetic drift.
Via Wikipedia.
If none of this content is yours, then whose is it? You are putting up a post without saying where it came from. Again, if you want memetics to be credible as a science, you need to have scientific method. Can you please give references to places where you have copied from other sources?
I admit that I have limited experience in the meme literature. But I am trained as a mathematician, and can recognize good arguments and good methods. I am being critical because I think a world with memetics accepted as a legitimate science is a world is a good thing.
"if you want memetics to be credible as a science, you need to have scientific method."
I don't care if memetics is credible as a science. What then? Memetics doesn't need to be accepted to work.
I thought I did pretty well on the references. I will try to do better.
Earlier in this site you gave a definition of a meme as:
"A meme (IPA: /mi:m/) is defined within memetic theory as a unit of cultural information, cultural evolution or diffusion that propagates
from one mind to another analogously to the way in which a gene propagates from one organism to another as a unit of genetic information and of biological evolution. Multiple memes may propagate as cooperative groups called memeplexes (meme complexes)."
Then later you have the following statement:
"The term memetic association refers to the idea that memes herd. For example, a meme for blue jeans includes memes for trouser-flies, riveted clothing, blue dye, cotton clothing, belt-loops and double-sewn seams."
Your statement is not logically consistent with your given definition. If something is called a unit, you are running into problems when you say that a unit includes other units. A unit is supposedly the "smallest" part of something, an indivisible entity.
Now if you say "a meme for blue jeans is associated with memes for....", then you are on much better ground. If you take out the blue jeans and say that all the other things are associated as they have blue jeans in common, then you have a much better example. This may sound like nitpicking. But if you want memetics to be respected as a science, you need to be precise in your language.
None of this content is mine -- well, none of the memetics, stuff, so there will be lots of stuff that contradicts.
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