Learn what it memes - The evolution of ideas

We all know the situation: An idea hits you out of the blue, maybe just before you go to bed or while you are at work. You push it to the back of your mind, only for it to reappear the next day. Each time it comes back, it changes a bit, you add details, you imagine new facets of the original idea, or you talk to people about it and they add to it, until the day comes when you think, this is it, this is perfect, let's do this. (Which is basically the birth story of this blog in a nutshell).

What you may not have considered is that this process bears a remarkable resemblance to the process of evolution. 

“I’m you but better”-Meme (original image by DrMikeBaxter 

used under CC BY-SA 2.0)

And no, there's no typo in the title, this "evolution of ideas" is where we originally got the word meme from. So let's explore what learning, social interaction and innovative ideas have to do with funny pictures on the internet.

Let us first look at some of the frameworks for what goes into social learning behaviour and how this can culminate in what we call culture:

Social behaviour is found in almost all life forms, from insects to higher mammals. Learning plays a central role in social behaviour because it is one of the fundamental processes of (brain) development. Being around conspecifics, observing their behaviour and imitating them are important ways in which knowledge and skills are passed on to new generations. But the content that is passed on is also important. In general, there are two types of learned information: those that are perishable and those that are not. Let us take a simple example: Information about where a certain type of berry grows is perishable and can change over time. On the other hand, the information that a certain type of berry is edible is constant and won't change. Other aspects of non-perishable information include certain aspects of communication or signalling (think of language rules), but also how to do things, aka skills, and knowledge of external concepts. What they all have in common is that they all arose from an innovation at some point in the past. Someone in the past discovered, developed or invented this type of information and passed it on to others. This could be done either vertically (from one generation to the next) or horizontally (among peers). 

Another way of looking at this transmission of information is the regional emergence of culture. A prime example of this would be languages, which are distinct and regionally limited means of communication. 

If you take all the different regional innovations, you end up with cultures and traditions from that region. However, for a regional variant innovation to persist and become part of a culture, certain factors must be met: it must be consistent, i.e. it should change little over time. More importantly, it must be widespread and accepted by the majority of the population (1).

Regional variations that are passed down through learning from generation to generation, solidifying over time and giving rise to divergent cultural entities. That sounds a lot like Darwin's concept of evolution, if you ask me. 

This must have been more or less what Richard Dawkins was thinking when he introduced "meme theory" to the world in 1976 (a few years before the internet became the place to share memes). He chose the word "meme" as the central cultural unit to the evolutionary gene. The word itself is derived from a contraction of the term mineme, which means to imitate in ancient Greek. In his theory, Dawkins proposes that the meme is a self-replicating unit that is essentially copied from one individual to another. However, this copying process can introduce errors that can change the functionality of the meme in an undirected way, just as random mutations within the genetic code can change the function of a gene for better or worse (2). The process is perfectly illustrated by a game of telephone, where a phrase is whispered from person to person. By the time the last player is reached, the original phrase has often been severely altered or mutated.

Image of David Brandt during the USDA soil health campaign commemorated

in the “Honest Work”-Meme (original image by D. Johnson/ USDA Photo,

 used under public domain)

It seems interesting that a term so deeply rooted in social behaviour research has become an almost everyday word for internet content, seemingly losing its original meaning. However, what we now commonly refer to as memes still retains much of its original essence. The classic meme is an image posted by one person on the internet, where it is picked up, copied, reposted and remixed by others. Over time, elements are added and the meme evolves into different forms. So yes, memes (internet images) are memes (replicating units of culture) and even the word itself has mutated over time to take on new meanings.

So next time you nose-exhale at a funny DOGE meme or get rick-rolled for the thousandth time, be aware that you are deeply rooted in the evolutionary process of cultural development.

(1) van Schaik, C. (2010). Social learning and culture in animals. In: Kappeler, P. (eds) Animal Behaviour: Evolution and Mechanisms. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02624-9_20

(2) Dawkins, R. (1976). The Selfish Gene. New York City: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-286092-5