What is a meme?
Richard Dawkins, in his book The selfish gene presented the idea that small "chunks" or "blocks" of information spread through society in the same way as genes or viruses infect their hosts and spread from host to host (or mind to mind, in the case of memes).
Some memes have achieved global scope -- the meme for fire. Others are localized -- the meme for the best fishing spot on a river.
Memes are ideas, information patterns in our brains, transmitted knowledge. Examples include slogans, melodies, icons, inventions, fashions.
Dawkins indicates that memes should be regardes as parasitic living beings. When someone learns a new meme (how to build a bridge), it is as if the meme is a parasite in the person's brain -- using that persons brain to propagate itself out to other brains as the person seeks to apply and teach that new meme.
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