Is memetics quantified cultural transmission?

Question

In the words of of its inventor, Richard Dawkins, the word "meme" refers to "a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation". More precisely, a meme can be defined as an information pattern, held in an individual's memory or in an outside artefact (e.g. book, record or tool), which is likely to be communicated or copied to another individual's memory. Examples of memes are ideas, technologies, theories, songs, fashions, and traditions. This covers all forms of beliefs, values and behaviors that are normally taken over from others rather than discovered independently. Do you think that the meme is the quantity that defines cultural transmission?

Answer 1

Dawkins does define the meme as the smallest recognizeable piece of cultural information. This is an interesting question in that we would have to wonder whether this ability to recognize a piece of information need to be, or is, the same as the ability to have meaning. So for lack of anything but a lousy example, what would me recognizing that something is Chinese offer as far as communication? Would the same amount of information be necessary for a Chinese individual to recognize this as it would for an American, like myself. Seems like the conditions needed to meet the meme definition vary across cultures and context.
I'm not sure that you can have a universal meme standard, it must be referenced with respect to a culture which can give meaning to it. As a result, I think if you want to make meme a unit of transmission, like "miles" in mph, or "bits" in bps, you would run into problems of standard units.
The most interesting element of the meme discussion, which Dawkins seems to have initiated with his discussion of the "selfish gene", is looking at the meme from its own perspective, like a virus. How does the meme proliferate and what changes does it undergo during its evolution. Looking at meme as an epidemic of meaning and people as vessels for the meme to replicate is an interesting level of analysis.
From this level of analysis the quantity of interest is number of human transmissions per change, which would be kind of cool.

I wish there were more conceptual questions like this instead of things that beg for the typical wikepedia cut and paste answer.

Answer 2

From Merriam-Webster: {meme - an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture}

A meme is not a quantity, as you noted. It can be anything that spreads from person to person in a culture. These may be true or false, popular or unpopular. Memes don't "define" cultural transmission, it's a defined form of cultural transmission- person to person. Other forms of cultural transmission are books, TV, radio etc. (although it's hard to draw the line where TV starts and people end).

Answer 3

The % of "white British" people in the UK is as follows: Northern Ireland 98.2% Scotland 95.5% Wales 93.2% North East England 93.6% South West England 91.8% North West England 87.1% Yorkshire and The Humber 85.8% East of England 85.3% East Midlands 85.4% South East England 85.2% West Midlands 79.2% Greater London 44.9% So leaving aside London, the remainder of the UK has on average 89% of "white British" people. So your comment about "minorities taking over" is false anyway. It is also worth noting that Denmark and Germany has approximately the same % of immigrants as the UK. The idea that the UK has a greater % of immigrants than anywhere else in Europe is, and always has been, a myth. It's just scaremongering by those who are trying to conveniently scapegoat anyone non white/non ethnically British for the problems of the country.

Answer 4

quantity refers to amount.
If you can count it it is quantifiable
if you can't count it it is not.

that said I would add that memes are closely related to subtext. It is not just the unit of cultural transmission but also how that cultural transmission is received, translated, evolved and understood.

An Article I wrote about subtext
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The topic of subtext has sparked my interest as it is an intriguing thing in writing. Text is a tangible thing. Subtext is not.

If we consider text as "a message sent and received" then we can also consider subtext as "a subtle message sent and received." Subtext is the message under the message.

Text is received through our eyes and ears. Subtext is received through our intuitions, thoughts, and feelings. Subtext is filtered by our own experiences, knowledge, beliefs, and values.

Subtext in screenplays can be, and should be, visual as well spoken.

One example of auditory subtext is of one character saying to another "What did I tell you?". This example implies that a conversation has happened some time prior to the comment. the implication that a conversation has gone on before is subtext.

Particular theme music is another example. The music is chosen to help set the scene. It is a form of subtext that is accepted by our senses as being just someting in the background and yet it has meaning.

Visual subtext can be in the manner of actions of the characters; the way the characters are dressed, the arrangement of props; the presence or absence of items such as clocks, hats, televisions; the order that events occur.

When a female character steps up boldly to a male character and offers a firm handshake there is a sub text in that action. The subtext could be: Women are equal to men. It could also be said that there is a deeper level of subtext and that is the subtext of "the writer is a staunch feminist"

Subtext is the conclusions, presumptions, and assumptions that the receiver makes of the message. Subtext can be, and often is, manipulated by the creator of the message.

The images of soldiers in the bunker scrawling letters home to loved ones or staring wistfully at photographs carries the subtext "soldiers have feelings too and are not all tough."

Have you ever noticed in war movies how the allies soldiers all write home, stare at pictures of loved ones, receive parcels of goodies from home. The enemy soldiers are only ever seen 'sneaking behind bushes', 'shooting', 'screaming' and other such images.

These two extreme views are loaded with subtext. "We" are the good guys. "We" are stong, and sensitive and loved. "They" are the bad guys. "They" are cruel and cold and sneaky.

Life itself is full of subtexts. In a boardroom there are sometimes arranged around the table one or two slightly shortened chairs. These chairs are often put to the side but brought around the table when a member of the board is to be sacked. It is a message. "You are too small for this boardroom."

Always at the boardroom table there is the 'head' of the table and the 'foot' of the table, there is a 'left of the chairman' and a 'right of the chairman'. Consider how your family is seated around the dining table each night! What is the subtext there?

Text in chat is filled with subtext. It is our experience or lack there of, in chatrooms that adds the meaning to the subtext. Also our own lives gives us meaning to chatroom conversations.

When someone sends the chat message "Hi." our true life experience may tell us this is a nice person because in our life nice people approach and say hi. Our life experience may on the other hand say this is a nasty person who wants something. If that is the case we will respond according not only to what that person actually says in chat but also to our own inward experiences.

The subtext of the message "Hi" may be "Hi do you want to talk to me?" You then choose to either talk, or not. Your choice is in itself a message. The subtext could also be "Hi I am a man you are a woman and that means you have to talk to me and amuse me" Not all subtext is immediately obvious.

It is true that wordsmiths must learn to manipulate subtext. They must learn to bend and twist the subtext and the text to create the images and responses they want. It is also true they have a responsibility to be aware of the subtext and its effects and to write responsibly, even in chat.

To me subtext is the true art of writing. Craftsmanship applies to the outward text, but art applies to the inward subtext.
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memes need to be considered in the context of their origin as well as within the context of your own personal filters of experience, learning, morals, values, and judgements.

memes need to be considered on their own without a particular context as well.

it would be amiss to consider a meme to be a replication as nothing that is not tangible is truly replicated, thoughts, ideas, dreams are all altered in transmission and in receipt