Meme - a unit of cultural information, as a concept, belief, or practice, that spreads from person to person in a way analogous to the transmission of genes. Memes are copied from one person to another by imitation.
I argue that more complex human cognitive processes, such as language, reading, scientific research and so on, all build in some way on the ability to imitate, and therefore all these processes are, or can be, memetic.
Memes are selfish and their only reason to exist is to replicate. The term ‘selfish’ here means that the genes act only for themselves; their only interest is their own replication; all they want is to be passed on to the next generation.
Memes fulfil the role of replicator because they exhibit all three of the necessary conditions; that is, heredity (the form and details of the behaviour are copied), variation (they are copied with errors, embellishments or other variations), and selection (only some behaviours are successfully copied). This is a true evolutionary process.
‘Imagine a world full of brains, and far more memes than can possibly find homes. Which memes are more likely to find a safe home and get passed on again?’.
I will try to describe the memetic evolution of humanity and apply the learnings to the product design by imitating the patterns.
The first signs of obvious imitation are the stone tools made by Homo habilis 2.5 million years ago. People imitated ways of making baskets, wooden scrapers or knives, baby slings, or other useful artefacts that would not have survived the way stone tools do. So let us imagine a very early culture of H. habilis, using simple stone tools to cut up and skin game or shape wood, and inventing and copying a few other simple artefacts. As the new skills begin to spread it becomes more and more important to be able to acquire them. And how do you acquire them? – by imitation of course. Thus, being a good imitator becomes increasingly important. Not only that, but it becomes important to imitate the right people and the right things. In such decisions we would expect simple heuristics, or rules of thumb, to be used.
What are the filters then? ‘Imitate the most successful people’ might be one; but now there are memes this does not just mean imitating those with the most food or the strongest muscles, it means imitating the people who have the most impressive tools, the brightest clothes, or the newest skills. What this amounts to is ‘imitate the best imitator’. As a consequence, whatever is deemed best spreads fastest. Different algorithms will define what's best and what may influence the value of a vehicle.
1. Selection for imitation
The better imitators do better. Selection will progress towards best imitators, as it's general skill and it can be applied both to food processing and poem writing. If you are absolutely hopeless at imitation, you, and therefore your offspring, will be at a disadvantage in a way you never would have been a few thousand years earlier. The new selection pressure begins with this step.
Whom does it pay to imitate? The good imitators of course. Imagine a woman who is especially skilled at copying the latest ways of picking inaccessible fruits or carrying them back to the family, or a man especially good at copying the best toolmaker. If you are an inferior imitator it will still pay you to copy the best imitators. They will have acquired the most useful skills and you now need those skills. During the last millennium you did not. As these memes spread the most successful people are those who can acquire the currently most important memes. Genes for being able to copy the best memes, and genes for copying the people who have the best memes, will be more successful than other genes.
But which are the best memes? ‘Best’ means, initially at least, ‘best for the genes’. People who copy survival–related memes will fare better than people who copy irrelevant memes. But it cannot always be obvious which these memes are.
Memes can change faster than human genes, so the genes will not be able to track them effectively.
3. Selection for mating with the imitators
It would pay to mate with the same people you want to copy. If you mate with the best imitators, then your offspring are more likely to be good imitators and so to acquire all the things that have become important in this newly emerging culture.