Do you know what a meme is?
Until recently, I did not. It took a while for me to grasp the concept and I needed to buy a book to get the full meaning.
I realize the following sounds like an ad. I apologize in advance.
Holy mother of God, did I find the right book! It is called Virus of the Mind by Richard Brodie, and was written in 1996. Richard is known also as the original programmer of Microsoft Word. The dude's got credentials.
In typical American fashion, I have read about half this book so far and I now consider myself an expert on the subject.
I am not going to go into any detail on what a meme is. If you do not know, get the book or go to this site. www.memecentral.com. Wikipedia may also prove helpful... perhaps. Lot's to say, though, so no explaining here.
The upshot of a meme is that an idea will spread, and that idea will have an impact. That is a very whitewashed and arbitrary definition.
Mr. Brodie drew a parallel between memes, genes, and computers. Memes spread like viruses (biological and computer) and "infect" others. Also, memes duplicate rapidly. The point of a virus or a meme is not entirely clear until we see the result, after the reproduction.
On the same token, human beings can be compared to memes. We reproduce, perhaps, not as rapidly as viruses, but we reproduce nonetheless. Richard shows some passion toward pointing out that our reproductive capacity is based solely on the spread of genes for the sake of finding out (from the gene's perspective) which genes spread fastest. (Again, read that book.)
Clearly human beings are, Darwin-ly speaking, fit to survive. But through memes, and with a nudge from Richard, we have another means of survival. Survival by ideas.
Thanks to the internet, and today's Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, among countless others, we are more than ever before able to make our print on society through memes. This is our new digital legacy.
I am not just talking about the "information superhighway" and the many hours google owes us all back after googling our own names. I am talking about impact. Will there come a day when what an individual says on the internet has more of an qualitative impact on our culture than any impact or influence he could have while raising a child of his own? Will there come a day when what EVERY individual says on the internet has an effect?
Imagine what that would mean for us all! If I told the world tomorrow that I like chicken and orange soda, is there potential that orange soda and chicken could be sold out at Seven-eleven? Would someone actually forgo sex because of my meme?
Well... I hope not...
These days we have so much information at our fingertips and so many more eyes on our interests, that I believe a tipping point (yep, read both halves of this one) can be reached.
What are your thoughts?
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