A Day in the Life of a Meme

Philosophica 57 (1):53-90 (1996)
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Abstract

Like the information patterns that evolve through. biological processes, mental representations or memes evolve through adaptive exploration and transformation of an information space through variation, selection, and transmission. However since memes do not contain instructions for their replication our brains do it for them, strategically, guided by a fitness landscape that reflects both internal drives and a worldview that forms through meme assimilation. This paper presents a tentative model for how an individual becomes a meme evolving agent via the emergence of an autocatalytic network of sparse, distributed memories, and discusses implications for complex creative thought processes and why they are unique to humans. A hypothetical scenario for the evolutionary dynamics of a given meme in a society of interacting individuals is presented.

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Citations of this work

Ideas are not replicators but minds are.Liane Gabora - 2004 - Biology and Philosophy 19 (1):127-143.
Minimal mind.Alexei A. Sharov - 2012 - In Liz Swan, Origins of Mind. New York: Springer Verlag. pp. 343--360.
Neuropragmatism on the origins of conscious minding.Tibor Solymosi - 2012 - In Liz Swan, Origins of Mind. New York: Springer Verlag. pp. 273--287.
Five Clarifications about Cultural Evolution.Liane Gabora - 2011 - Journal of Cognition and Culture 11 (1-2):61-83.

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