Hi everybody! Today I'm breaking the habbit posting something different bringing to you a topic I've been reading about lately and I wanted to share it with you, I tried to summarize my ideas as best as I could, I hope it is as isteresting of reading to you as it was for me, I think is a worth topic to talk about between internet users.
“They shape our will. They are our culture -- they are everything we pass on.” –Monsoon.
We all know the humoristic memes on internet that appeared about ten years ago with it's origins even earlier in 4chan forums, they were called "Memes" and they came to last, but, did you ever asked yourself were the "Meme" word did come from? What does it mean?
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This research began when Monsoon, a Metal Gear Rising character, reffered to them as "DNA of soul." He wasn't talking about internet memes but something deeper.
Screenshot taken by me.
“Expose someone to anger long enough, they will learn to hate. They become a carrier.”
The meme original idea was exposed on 70's by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins on his book "The Selfish Gene." I took the time to review it, and it spends the half and a bit more of the book writing of how our genes integrate us, how they shape our physical characteristics and survive passing on to the next generation, from parent to soo and so, using individuals as carriers.
Genes are biological replicators.
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At this point it wasn't so different from a universitary book about biology, until we reach the chapter "Memes: The new replicators"
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Memes? As well as genes represents the minimal expression of transferable biological data, memes are the minimal expression of "ideological" data, something that pass on not by physical reproduction but the way that individuals influence each others through ideas.
Image source here.
The "Meme" word came from the union of two words, "Mind" and "Gene". We have no need on going deeper to realize that human evolution isn't being governed by the same factors that fifty thousand years before did, humand mind has evolved to the point it was able to make a deep study of conduct, and memes has been useful to see the way our culture is being build from cero more easily.
Suppose a giraffe ir born, but is has a short neck, this is product of genes, this giraffe will starve to death due to his disability on feeding from trees so it will not find couple and won't pass it's genes, it could not adapt to it's enviorement.
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Same happens to memes, let's suppose someone comes and says that the sky is green, unless you are a two years old daltonic it you won't agree this this not only due you've grown believing that sky is blue but knowing wich colors are which too.
Conversely, we are born, grow and believe what is told to us because there's no idea or knowledgge that says otherwise.
Another example is the existence of God. God is one of the best memes to understand the idea.
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It's said to the man that God exists and he believes that idea due that God concept helps him to understand things are as they are, helps him fill the void of ignorance. "God is the answer".
On the other hand, it is more difficult to a science man to accept this idea cause the science, the knowledge, his "memetic enviorement" it's not suitable for the God's meme to survive, "Science has the answer to all the questions."
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In conclusion, memes are every single influence, emotion, idea or conception that human mind can transmit from one person to another through interaction, they are the new replicators of human evolve. Every single influence that is being exercised on us since we were born they integrate our memetic "stock". Memes are certainly the DNA of soul.
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