[1]Principia Cybernetica Web

                       Meme replication: the memetic life-cycle

   the memetic life-cycle consists of 4 stages that together determine the meme's
   fitness: assimilation, retention, expression and transmission
     ____________________________________________________________________________

   To be replicated, a [2]meme must pass successfully through four subsequent
   stages: 1) assimilation by an individual, who thereby becomes a host of the meme;
   2) retention in that individual's memory; 3) expression by the individual in
   language, behavior or another form that can be perceived by others; 4)
   transmission of the thus created message or meme vehicle to one or more other
   individuals. This last stage is followed again by stage 1, thus closing the
   replication loop. At each stage there is [3]selection, meaning that some memes
   will be eliminated. Let us look in more detail at the mechanisms governing these
   four stages.

Assimilation

   A successful meme must be able to "infect" a new host, that is, enter into its
   memory. Let us assume that a meme is presented to a potential new host.
   "Presented" means either that the individual encounters a meme vehicle, or that
   he or she independently discovers it, by observation of outside phenomena or by
   thought, i.e. recombination of existing cognitive elements. To be assimilated,
   the presented meme must be respectively noticed, understood and accepted by the
   host.

   Noticing requires that the meme vehicle be sufficiently salient to attract the
   host's attention. Understanding means that the host recognizes the meme as
   something that can be represented in his or her cognitive system. The mind is not
   a blank slate on which any idea can be impressed. To be understood, a new idea or
   phenomenon must connect to cognitive structures that are already available to the
   individual. Finally, a host that has understood a new idea must also be willing
   to believe it or to take it serious. For example, although you are likely to
   understand the proposition that your car was built by little green men from Mars,
   you are unlikely to accept that proposition without very strong evidence.
   Therefore, you will in general not memorize it, and the meme will not manage to
   infect you.

Retention

   The second stage of memetic replication is the retention of the meme in memory.
   By definition, memes must remain some time in memory, otherwise they cannot be
   called memes. The longer the meme stays, the more opportunities it will have to
   spread further by infecting other hosts. This is Dawkins's (1976) [4]longevity
   characteristic for replicators.

   Just like assimilation, retention is characterized by strong selection, which few
   memes will survive. Indeed, most of the things we hear, see or understand during
   the day are not stored in memory for longer than a few hours. Although you may
   have very clearly assimilated the news that the progressive liberal party won the
   Swaziland elections with 54% of the votes, you are unlikely to remember anything
   of this a week later--unless you live in Swaziland, perhaps. Retention will
   depend on how important the idea is to you, and how often it is repeated, either
   by recurrent perception or by internal rehearsal. All learning paradigms agree
   that experiences are encoded more strongly into memory by frequent reinforcement.

Expression

   To be communicated to other individuals, a meme must emerge from its storage as
   memory pattern and enter into a physical shape that can be perceived by others.
   This process may be called "expression". The most obvious means of expression is
   speech. Other common means for meme expression are text, pictures, and behavior.
   Expression does not require the conscious decision of the host to communicate the
   meme. A meme can be expressed simply by the way somebody walks or manipulates an
   object, or by what he or she wears.

   Some retained memes will never be expressed, for example because the host does
   not consider the meme interesting enough for others to know, uses it
   unconsciously without it showing up in his or her behavior, does not know how to
   express it, or wants to keep it secret. On the other hand, the host may be
   convinced that the meme is so important that it must be expressed again and again
   to everybody he or she meets.

Transmission

   To reach another individual, an expression needs a physical carrier or medium
   which is sufficiently stable to transmit the expression without too much loss or
   deformation. Speech, for example, uses sound to transmit an expression, while
   text will be transmitted through ink on paper or electrical impulses in a wire.
   The expression will take the form of a physical signal, modulating the carrier
   into a specific shape from which the original meme can be re-derived. This
   physical shape may be called the meme vehicle. For example, meme vehicles can be
   books, photographs, artefacts or CD-ROMs.

   Selection at the transmission stage happens through either elimination of certain
   memes, when the vehicle is destroyed or gets corrupted before it is perceived by
   another individual, or through differential multiplication, when the vehicle is
   reproduced into many copies. For example, a manuscript may be put into the
   shredder or it may be turned into a book which is printed in thousands of copies.
   A radio communication may get lost because of noise, or it may be broadcasted to
   millions of listeners. Especially since the emergence of mass media, including
   the [5]electronic network, the transmission stage is the one where the contrast
   between successful and unsuccessful memes is largest, and where selection may
   have the largest impact.

   Reference:

   Heylighen F. (1998): "[6]What makes a meme successful?", in: Proc. 16th Int.
   Congress on Cybernetics (Association Internat. de Cybernétique, Namur), p.
   423-418.
     ____________________________________________________________________________

   [7]Copyright© 2001 Principia Cybernetica - [8]Referencing this page

   Author
   F. [9]Heylighen,

   Date
   Nov 23, 2001

                                       [10]Home
                                       [up.gif]
                           [11]Metasystem Transition Theory
                                       [up.gif]
                             [12]The History of Evolution
                                       [up.gif]
                                 [13]Social Evolution
                                       [up.gif]
                                     [14]Memetics

                                          Up
                           [15]Prev. [4arrows.gif] [16]Next
                                         Down
     ____________________________________________________________________________
   ____________________________________________________________________________

                                    [17]Discussion
     ____________________________________________________________________________

     * [18]Comical indeed, Comment by James B. Thomas
     * [19]Comical indeed, Comment by James B. Thomas
     * [20]Comical indeed, Comment by James B. Thomas
     * [21]Reply to James B. Thomas, Refutation by Don Stockbauer

                                  [22]Add comment...

                                      [space.gif]

References

   1. LYNXIMGMAP:http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMEREP.html#PCP-header
   2. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMES.html
   3. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SELECT.html
   4. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMES.html
   5. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMENET.html
   6. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Papers/MemeticsNamur.html
   7. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/COPYR.html
   8. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/REFERPCP.html
   9. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
  10. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/DEFAULT.html
  11. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MSTT.html
  12. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HISTEVOL.html
  13. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SOCEVOL.html
  14. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMES.html
  15. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMSELC.html
  16. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMEFITN.html
  17. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MAKANNOT.html
  18. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Annotations/MEMEREP.0.html
  19. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Annotations/MEMEREP.1.html
  20. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Annotations/MEMEREP.2.html
  21. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/Annotations/MEMEREP.3.html
  22. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/hypercard.acgi$annotform?

[USEMAP]
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMEREP.html#PCP-header
   1. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/DEFAULT.html
   2. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HOWWEB.html
   3. http://pcp.lanl.gov/MEMEREP.html
   4. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMEREP.html
   5. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SERVER.html
   6. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/hypercard.acgi$randomlink?searchstring=.html
   7. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/RECENT.html
   8. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/TOC.html#MEMEREP
   9. http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SEARCH.html