Guide:
I. Introduction
II. Components of thinking ← you are here
III. Mechanisms of cognition
IV. More mechanisms
V. Types of memes
VI. Meme2Meme2Gene interactions
VII. Human2Human transmission
VIII. A Bigger World
IX. Gravity of 'plexes
X. Three is a crowd
XI. Third scenario
XII. Religion and philosophy
XIII. Mental disorders of the new age
XIV. True vs Fake
XV. Outsourced Me
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1.Tools of the trade
Let's do memetics i say, but how does one do the deed without knowing what we are dealing with first?
Some fundamental questions have to be raised and answered.
First one: does memetics concern itself with animals other than humans?
Maybe it does, but i don't - the way human mind works is my domain of interest, so i'm going to be very anthropocentric here. Less "Sapien" beings will be used as examples and illustrations, but trends and processes i'm gonna describe may not apply to things that aren't "Homo".
What is a meme? A unit of "learned behavior", as defined by Dawkins.
So it's a unit of some information encoded, presumably, in our brains. Not dissimilar from bytes in a computer. The problem is - we can't really detect or track a meme. The best we can do is to measure neurons working, or whatever else neuroscientists are doing, but that's not exactly "memetics". If someone were to show you a map of all synapses firing, would you be able to point at specific place and with confidence proclaim "here be memes"? Doubt that. Nobody knows how a meme looks like, we are currently at the stage Darwin was back in the day when he was figuring out evolution without microscopes to research DNA.
But just because we can't see memes, doesn't mean we can't track their influence. Influence on behaviour.
What is "Learned behaviour"? Well, if i understand the rhetoric correctly, a working example can be a group of lion cubs learning how to hunt by observing how their mother does the trick. This process of "learning" can hypothetically be quantified and measured, with units of said measurement being memes. And we get memes from the act perceiving. Animals, and by extension - us, watch how others do things and try to replicate the acts that help them to survive. In the context of memetics we ought to talk within the context of specific kind of information, the kind that helps us form behaviors: "monkey see - monkey do" kind of stuff. There are plenty of stories exemplifying such a process among birds: one little thing picked up a cute melody somewhere, sang it, other birds heard it and found it to be a banger worthy of copying, thus adding some variety to avian concerto ornithologists get to hear during the next mating season. Here’s a video explaining bird brains. Or example 1 and 2 of learning in reality. And a more grim one.
However, Dawkins in his book provided an example of a meme: "How arches are built". How does one learn to build an arch? Well, probably by listening to someone who already knows how to do it. Like birds learn to sing, we can learn how to build, right?
No. You also have to learn through practice - chiseling blocks, placing them in the right places and order, knowledge of material and it's properties, all sorts of things.
But it doesn't end here - you can not only learn through listening or doing, you can learn by watching too. Most of the arches are built from one material, but if some mason decides to spice up his creation, he can alternate between different-colored blocks for style points. Then some other mason sees the result, picks it up, and then the other one does the same, and then the other...
So - what is the difference between a unit of information we got from our sensory organs, and units of learned behavior?
I say they are one and the same. Every piece of knowledge you get from environment is also the piece to form your habits from. Sure, you cannot change the world by watching alone, and acting involves very different processes, but one doesn’t work without the other, and as such i see no point in creating a separate category. Yet.
Let's go further. Information is acquired through different methods, i already described multiple, humans and other animals use to create patterns of behaviour, which means a "meme" isn't a single abstract thing, but multiple different ones.
Unless you want to argue that auditory information isn't different from the visual one that is.
That creates a question: how many types of memes are there?
I don't know.
Do not despair yet though! There is a possible solution to the problem and it lies in the way the human brain is structured!
You see, our grey matter isn't just random or uniform in it's makeup - there are actual regions and zones, each dedicated to some function. Scientists can't quite pinpoint the exact roles yet because they all cooperate and work simultaneously during various tasks, but some correlations have already been established.
Common example - music and speech are done in Broca's area(frontal lobe), while movement is in Primary Motor Cortex(frontal lobe again). Emotions? Amygdala(temporal lobe). There are even separate regions for controlling different body parts, be it a leg or a tongue.
This means human experience can be broken down into different smaller components.
What are those components?
I don't know.
Starting on a high note, eh?
I said before that we can't see memes, and we don't have microscopes for them, however there is one tool we can actually use to "see" and "measure" memes. It's far from being scientific or even reliable, but gotta start somewhere.
The tool is called "Brain". Human brain. Knowing the way it works will provide a lot of answers about the properties of information, because, ultimately, memetics is about how humans perceive the world. But also watching humans act is a method too - memes are made for behaviour, so we can examine how they affect those who possess them. Years of observation of how my brothers in kind think and process stuff gave me some vague idea what brain thinking is made of. I can even talk in greater detail about the properties of some of those elements.
Brain will tell us everything we need, we only need to learn to understand it.
To help clear the focus of my ramblings, i'm going to draw an analogy with computers.
You know how a PC can be separated into different levels of organisation?
Kinda like this:
1) Hardware. GPU, CPU, Hard drive - those. Solid pieces of plastic and silica out of which thinking machines are made.
2) Software. Windows, BIOS, Photoshop, Fortnite - combinations of code that use hardware to do their job, for which computers were made in the first place.
3) Programming language. Under the hood of every program there are millions of words "print('Hello, world!')" written on C++; C#; Python and others.
4) Binary. Programming language under the hood is just a translation of human syntax into a pure machine code, which works on ones and zeroes.
I beg tech-bros to forgive me if i blasphemed against architecture of PC. But why did i make this list? To draw parallels between human mind and more artificial thinking constructs.
While biology concerns itself with an equivalent of human level one, and psychology on the level two, the domain of memetics is level three. At least, from my point of view that's how it should be, i have a suspicion Richard Dawkins, when creating "meme", meant something on an even deeper level - fourth. Regardless, i doubt we can go that deep, so let's focus on something more reachable.
And thus we proceed.
2.Founding blocks
Basic gist of human perception - your brain gathers input from the surrounding environment with various organs, be it skin or ears, then breaks this information down into simple parts and commits them to memory. For the sake of fairness - there are people to whom my descriptions may not apply. For example - people with "photographic memory", or some other form of savanthood.
Here's the list of aforementioned parts:
1) Color.
One of the basic bricks of vision upon which we base our judgement. Helps figuring out properties of objects we look at, but more importantly - it helps to distinguish one object from another.
Here's a picture of some wild berries. How many of them can you count?
And here's the same picture, but with color. Were your estimates accurate?
Do take notice of the fact how easier it is to perform the requested task with the colored pic. They just “pop“ into your vision. Human mind is pretty well optimized to think it terms of figuring out differences, so being able to see different colors helps immensely in understanding the world around you. Technically, shades of gray are colors too, but let's not be too pedantic. I'm sure you get the point that red is more different from green, than gray from slightly brighter gray.
2) Shapes
I don't quite understand how it works, but humans also break everything down into simple visual patterns - lines, curves, circles, etc.
Look at this picture.
You can see the tree and the person under it, right? Think you remember all of it as it is?
No. For the sake of saving energy your brain optimizes and compresses the incoming information into simple algorhitms. All those leaves? You aren't going to remember their accurate position, just the fact that they exist and some vague area where they should be, like a blob of white noise.
Branches? Definitely converted into an algorithm. A pattern. Of lines. Same goes for the base of the tree - bunch of curves plus additional information i'm not mentioning yet.
Even the general shape of the tree is remembered - even if you don't know what "Negative Space" is, your brain already remembered with some accuracy where the tree is and isn't; you remembered it's shape.
And the area within those shapes is where all other memes are applied. Like color.
Why does it work this way? It's easier to remember not the whole picture in full detail, but as a number of patterns, lines and curves, of some size and length, which in places you think are appropriate, split into "branches" - more lines. Tree isn't a "tree", it's an algorhitm. Hell, even the device you are using to read this text isn't a thing in itself, you understand it as a rectangle with some additional properties, such as color and texture. Probably grey and smooth. The pattern breaks and changes in places where there are screen and buttons, or other outside influences.
3) Memory.
Somewhat confusing of a name, i understand, but it is an important component of a memetic structure. I'm not talking about a memory as a container for information, but a memory "marker". A unit of information.
What does this marker convey? "That happened". No, really, if the purpose of this marker was put into words, that's what it would sound like. Distinguishing information you have in your brain that is "real" from "unconfirmed", "fake", "imaginary", and "fiction", or whatever else you can call it, is the purpose of this "memory" unit. In principle, it is added by the brain to other memes which you know to be actually related to reality. Stuff you witnessed yourself. It's also a marker of "strength" - stuff that you remember as "real" will last longer in your brain without being forgotten. Plus "real" memes will take precedence when times come for your brain to choose what to recall.
I promise to explain what i'm talking about later. There are people who, it seems, have problems with this exact function. I don't envy their lives.
This marker is also responsible for statements like "I'll believe it when i see it", and, in general, giving more weight to personal experience rather than second-hand information.
4) Emotion.
This is not a meme, and in fact, a "genetic" component, a part of the system you inherit by the virtue of being a human and having normal brain. It's not "learned behaviour". However, memes are related to it, are a part of it, and role of emotions and moods is closely interwoven with behaviour.
What is an "Emotion" within the context of memetics? A marker. Too, like "Memory". The role is different though. Here's what is similar: it too works as a marker of strength - memes associated with different mental states will be stronger/weaker, meaning they will be more or less likely to be selected for recalling and be used by the brain. Which events you remember more clearly? Happy ones? Or sad ones? Or boring ones? This time i can provide an actual metric, because someone made a research - "What makes online content go viral".
This is the relevant part:
Don't misunderstand - it's not a study of "strength" as i described here, but "virality", which doesn't mean that you will be able to retain and/or prioritize memories and habits related to emotions more or less, but it might be useful as a reference.
There's probably correlation between "strength" and "virality" too.
What distinguishes "emotion" from "memory" - it also works as a system of categorization. When the time comes for brain to choose which memes to use for whatever purpose, it "consults" with the emotion system first. Or second. But not the last. The system is important for selecting relevant behaviours for relevant situations, and relevancy is based on emotional states/moods. Have you noticed that it's hard to think "happy" thoughts when you are sad or angry? That's because the systems at play decided it's time for "angry" or "sad" actions, so all unrelated memes buzz off back into the depths of memory, untill it's a right time for them to be used.
You can think of it as various working modes in a computer, or some other mechanism, which regulate the usage of programs within based on your inputs. Perhaps humans too have an equivalent of an "Airplane mode", and we definitely have an "Energy saving mode". We probably inherited the system from olden times, when our ancestors didn't even have eyes, when it was a simplest system for regulating behaviour. The genetically encoded behavior, - stuff we call "instincts". They are the ones being regulated. Ever seen a horny amoeba? Kidding. Granted, "emotions" aren't a memetic system, but a “genetic” one, - we have it in our genes, we don't learn it, but it doesn't mean we aren't capable of adding to it. Think of memes as standing on top of already existing system, where they work together (except when they don't).
5) Associations.
Memes aren't just floating in the middle of your grey matter, they are all connected by association “lines”, creating intricate webs. "Patterns of behavior" and "trains of thought" are made not only out of thoughts, but also something that binds them all. Connections determine the order in which your thoughts and actions are ordered and whether they are going to be remembered at all. Plus, what is connected determines the properties of whole groups of memes.
While i don't quite understand the rules which determine what can connect to what, but there are, in fact, rules. In general - only things similar to each other can be associated. What counts as "similar" eludes me, but you can see this rule manifest in different ways: for example - those "trains of thought" i mentioned, where each segment must be similar to the one before: "candy is sweet" - "sweet things are good" - "good things should be done more" - "candy should be eaten more" - this line of logic makes sense. "Candy is sweet" - "table is shaky" - "candy should be eaten more" not so much.
This rule doesn't apply to your own "internal" knowledge only, anything new you learn should come in order and interconnected. Things sense all to a the have This You write you understand. Order example, text has sequence can up? Would No, learned is think would even a of if it fit understand. Make been messed
In broader sense this "relatability" is a thing too - information you are learning should be connectable to what you already know. This text will not work if i don't provide foundations for other pieces of knowledge first, can't just start talking about egregores and infohazards. And just like me, you can't teach a toddler quantum physics. For breaking this "Rule" the reward is a sense of confusion. You'll feel that the logic of information present doesn't quite follow. Follow what? Association lines. In a way there's a knowledge which is too far for you to reach, and you require something closer to understand - some intermediate pieces which would act as a stepping stone for learning. Think you can explain chemistry to a child without using analogies and simple concepts? Well, you can, but the kid will not learn anything from it.
I'll create a vague and hard to track term - "memetic distance". There's no map of information yet, so i can't demonstrate it's application, but it describes the amount of memes a person should have to form a stable association chain between two points. How far is quantum physics from a pancake recipe? Or how far is concept of electricity from the concept of atoms? For now i'll merely resort to saying "distance is too far" or "close enough" to say if knowledge is going to be understood and integrated into the brain of some person in question. Particle physics is too far of a concept for/from preschoolers, for example.
There's a problem though - i provided "train of thought" as a demonstration, and it would be a fine piece of evidence if it wasn't for one fact - each step in it isn't a one meme in itself, but a whole lot of them, so it's not a problem to associate clusters, because they already have similar enough components. But it doesn't work the same way on smaller scale though - how memes themselves connect? How "color" can be associated with "shape"? Or "emotion"? How are they "relatable"? I don't yet know the answer.
That's the limits of my meme list. It's not exhaustive, don't get me wrong, and there are definitely more types of information in human brain, but i know nothing of them. I'm not even certain they are a thing. Is language a distinct meme in itself, or a bunch of different ones clumped together? What about music? Muscle memory seems like it can be a meme(very likely isn't), but i have no idea how it works.
Let's collapse all alternative possibilities in one abstract concept - an "Idea" meme. Remember that train of thought? Each step in it is a single "Idea". And so the rules of relatability apply to it without problem. "Rubic's Cube" is an "idea", and so is a statement "I'm hungry". Convenient, innit?
Not very scientific, but it will do it's job. The job of a placeholder.
It will find its place when time comes to draw schemes and stuff.