Guide:
I. Introduction
II. Components of thinking
III. Mechanisms of cognition ← you are here
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
___________________________________________
1.From
So, memes aren't just some vague somewhat poorly defined piece of data, it's actually many somewhat poorly defined pieces of data, each with different properties and functions. When cubs are watching their parents hunt, they collect a lot of information, if their brains work similar to a human one, and they too see shapes, colors, sounds, and what not. However, neither cubs nor humans are extracting memes out of thin air, information has a source, and not all of the times the source is our parents. We may mimic our fathers and mothers as a way of learning, but memes can be learned from books and pictures, this text being a prime example.
Thus we can break down the learning into two distinct categories, differentiated by the sources of memes. Why it's important? We engage animate and inanimate differently, and process information acquired from different types of sources differently. Underlying mechanisms are pretty alike, but not completely identical, so a little scheme can be made
I said there are two scenarios, but the picture shows three, yes. The third one is a pain in the ass i say, and the consequences of it, while curious, carry a significant degree of poorly researched weirdness. I will touch upon it, but for now let's focus on more easily understood parts.
The general principle - everything memetic has a Source, Signal, and the destination, Reciever. The destination of all memes here is human, because, as a i said, we are anthropocentric today.
Source is either another human, or some piece of the environment. Perhaps second scenario is also applicable to animals, but that i don't know.
Signal is a bit tricky. Technically it just means the memes the person pickes up from the Source, but there's a lot of nuances there, the consequence of which is eternal debate whether things are objective or subjective (the author is dead, and we have killed him).
I'll try to explain the whole path of a meme by describing how everything involved works as i understand it. The initial focus will be on a first scenario for the sake of simplicity and to avoid bloat and repetition. All scenarios are similar, so there's going to be a lot of overlap in how brain works in each of them, thus it’s better to focus on differences when they matter.
And the descriptions will start by establishing what exactly a "Source" is.
Please stop reading the text and look around. Take note of... well, as much as you can.
Done?
Now look at this scheme. Is this an accurate representation of your surroundings?
Even if no, i hope you get the idea - the surrounding environment can be visualized not as a collection of physical objects, but information instead. Memes that you can get form it, and the ones you are already getting. The scheme is focused on vision, but a more detailed one would include other methods of collection, if necessary. I borrowed a term from somewhere i don't remember and used it to name this sphere of information an "Infofield".
Right in front of you is the series of memes encoded in text, a bit to the side are memes indicating a wall, under you are memes that you understand as a "chair" or "sofa" or whatever. And as you move you gaze you collect memes from everywhere you eyesight falls. However, remember the old question: "If a tree falls in a forest and there's nobody to hear it, did it make a sound"? Physicists would say yes, but we are working with a different field, so the question should change: "are there memes if there's no one to interpret them?"
I know, it's a bit of a segway, but bear with me. Let me introduce you to a "potential"-"interpreted" meme dichotomy. Does the world exist beyond what one perceives? Unless you are a solipsist, then the answer is "yes", which means there's information to be discovered, even if you don't know it yet. Example being: this very text. Again. You do know my writings will not stop here, but you don't know what message these future words contain. The text within your field of view is visible, but the words on the edges of it are unreadable, leaving them in this "potential" state. And there are more pages still, with knowledge to uncover.
Or perhaps you can just try to feel the world around you, maybe you forgot something about your immediate surroundings, and this info is ought to be collected. Embody the spirit of old renowned explorers by venturing into the unknown and making potential interpreted - touch the thing near you and interpret it's potential memes.
So, there's a map of memes that can be made depicting some memes in some specific hypothetical or real place. For the purposes of explaining the place i’ll pick for demonstration purposes is around you, dear reader. And some specific object or a region in it (or a person), you focus on is the "Source" of memes.
From this "Source" you extract the memes by "interpreting" it's "Signal". What is a "Signal"? It's memes you are getting from the source. Ever heard statements like "Peacock's big tail signals health" or "Expensive clothes signal wealth"? It's that. Do note an important detail - the "Signal" isn't all memes the source has, but only the ones you are capable of getting. "Beauty is in the eye of beholder" can be regarded as a scientific fact. The memes you receive from a thing to a major degree depend on you. To the point when you can get from an object information which it technically didn't "possess". Imagine you bought a souvenir in Egypt or something, to which you have tied a lot of fond memories, which you use as a reminder of better times. Now if someone secretely replaces the memento with another, identically-looking souvenir, do you think you'll stop using it as a reminder since it's a completely different object, not the one you bought? Of course not, it looks sufficiently similar for you to think it's the same thing, so a memento it will remain.
Don't be fooled, it has to look similar enough in the first place, the system isn't completely dependent on your mind alone, reality has to do the legwork too.
I'm sure you understand what a "Recipient" is.
However i can go deeper yet and explain what exactly happens inside the person collecting memes. They don't just get into your head space, right? It's a complex process, involving a lot of moving parts. I even used a word "interpretation" - not an unfamiliar one to you i bet, but it means something special in the context of memetics. At least, as defined by me.
So what is this process of "interpretation" and what is the fate of the meme that got into human head?
It goes through this:
The scheme is incomplete, to put it lightly, and it's crudeness is self-evident, but this gotta do. I know it's also very confusing for the uninitiated, let me give you a starting point.
2.How
Behold! A vase!
Three of them even, in fact. Please, observe it carefully and remember various details, - it will be easier to understand to process of learning if you participate in it.
I'm certain you picked up various units of information, such as the color - cyan, properties of the surface based on how reflective it is (very), the presence of the plant, and the pattern of the surfaces of each vase - YYY, ΞΞ, and the one that looks like Tetris.
How did you do that? That's the function of the "Interpreter". What is the "Interpreter"? It's a mechanism, or group of mechanisms in your brain, which is responsible for decoding "raw" incoming information and converting it into memes.
It's structure and design is a mystery to me, to a significant degree, but despite that i think it's safe to separate it into two distinct part based on the way those parts are "created" and "developed" - one is "genetic", and the other is "memetic".
"Genetic" part of the "interpreter" function - that is the section i'm clueless about, and the existence of which is pretty much an assumption. I should describe it nonetheless, and it's very simple - "genetic interpreter" is a half of the mechanism that is encoded in human DNA. You have some basic recognition and processing software in your chromosomes. At, least, that is an assumption. There’s, probably, where the systems for assigning "memory" and "emotion" markers reside.
Now here's the part of which i'm certain - "memetic interpreter", the half that contains memes which allow you to extract even more memes out of the signal. Allow me to demonstrate by giving you such memes right now (assuming you don't have them already).
Look at this picture. What do you see?
Did you know that there's a pretty common trick movie directors use to show troubled relationships? To communicate that they put a lot of objects and other symbolic walls between two parties.
Look at the picture again.
The list of "Interpreter memes" is a long one, and you have a lot of them installed in your mind already too, and you are even currently using them. Like memes which we call "Language". Language and road signs, math and symbolism, any form of associations that look like "X means Y" - that's interpreters doing their work for you.
Humans don't see the world for what it is as a whole, only as much as they are equipped to understand, and everything else will "fly over your head". Just as the eyes can see only a fraction if the light spectrum, there are limits on the software side too.
The products of converting "raw" information into processed bits and pieces and bytes don't just float in the void, they are put inside the "Memory". The brain storage space, not the meme marker. And that space is... complicated. Especially the mechanisms that make it work. Nevertheless, explaining it's architecture and what makes it tick is what i'm going to do. Hope i'll do a fine enough job of slicing things in two. To begin to understand, we can take a look at computers, again. I don't know what mimics what in this chicken-or-egg scenario, but our electronic devices are similar to our white-and-grey matter. In particular, we can look at HDD-RAM pair of a standard PC.
The gist is simple - most, if not every byte, are stored in the Hard Drive of whatever device you are using to read this, be it a PC, Laptop, or a Smartphone (i beg tech bros for forgiveness if i blasphemed again), however they lie there dormant, for as long as they are not used. When the time comes for it to be used, then things change. When you launch an application, or an executive file, or open a picture, or write the text, or change anything in the system - relevant pieces of information are taken from the HDD and moved to RAM - that's where the changes are inflicted upon data. That's why you can keep more programs up and running at the same time after you install some new RAM boards into your PC. Better HDD allows storing more stuff, better RAM allows using more of it. Human grey matter is similar in principle - the organic equivalent of silica boards in our plastic machines would be the pairing of "short-term memory" and "long-term memory". I can't measure how many gigabytes your brain can fit, but i can tell those brain sections, wherever they may be, function in remarkably similar fashion, probably for the same reasons.
3.To
And after interpretation is done, memes find themselves in the "short-term" sector.
This warrants the usage of my slicing techniques again, because human RAM can be broken down by the contents of it's contents too, which reveal even more about how brain handles info.
What are these contents? I call it the "soup" due to it's fluidity and inconsistency, but it's architecture is pretty stable, and can be divided into two parts: "new" and "old" info. As a "response" to incoming memes you are wired to bring forth from the depths of your memory everything (or some things) which you already know and are related to "new" memes. I write word "banana" - you remember images of bananas, if you have those in your mind. Same goes for every other concept or idea.
The principle on the surface is simple - collect as much as you can from the surrounding environment, then rummage through what you already know about it, or something similar from times before, and based on that decide how to react.
The reaction, "response", thus too can be sliced into halves - "old knowledge" and the actual response, "programs" - the motions and actions you are going to do based on total sum of what you know. Or, managed to see and remember, if we are to be precise.
As a demonstration i have this neat little picture, which should provide you with an experience of your own systems struggling to find the matching old knowledge:
Do you know what these things are? I can only sorta guess based on the overall composition of some patterns, but that epiphany happened only after, and apparently the feeling of confusion is a one-time experience. It's possible for you to see something and not know what it is, due to lack of familiarity with it, and then act on lacking information, and it's also possible to be very knowledgeable about a thing or situation, and not do anything about it.
Old info is taken from the memory through the process usually referred to as "recollection". It isn't precise for the most people, and it usually activates not just one specific thing you are thinking about, but a whole bunch of other associated memes. Chances are, when you were presented with a "banana" meme complex, your thoughts automatically trailed off for a second into related topics, like jungles and/or monkeys.
"Context" - memes taken from outside, help to narrow down the search to specific related memes, but fuzziness, "uncertainty", is a part of the mechanism, at least untill you become better at remembering and decision-making somehow. Still, fuzzy search can be demonstrated through things like "Cross-modal correspondence".
What is "Cross-modal correspondence"? It describes associations which lead humans to logical statements like "white=sweet". There's a known experiment which can be demonstrated here and now. Please, observe those shapes.
These shapes' names are "Bouba", "Gribble", and "Kiki". Which one is which?
Let me guess, you have associations like "sharp sound = sharp shape", leading you to a conclusion that the spiky one is "Kiki", while the blob is "Bouba", right? That's how it is for many people.
Fuzzy recollection helps making a decision when no direct info helping you is present, leading to less direct approach. Let me also guess - when i said that "white = sweet" did your mind remember how sugar or ice cream taste?
I cannot make a claim whether such associations are learned or genetic, and perhaps it's not so important. Possibly - both are true. Here’s a video talking about it, and a bit of science. Perhaps crossmodal perception, like synesthesia, is related.
Additional issues can come when an input leads to multiple different results.
I’m sure you can come up with scenarios when something causes an indecision due to conflicting information comes in, “making hard choices“ is a staple of human experience, neverhteless allow me to show a more specific and curious case: “Stroop Effect“. The essence is in this picture:
You have a set of words, read them and say the color their font has. Do it fast.
What is happening: you get two different types of information, a “language“ and “color“, both of which refer to two different “color“ points in your mind, like the first one being “yellow“ and “green“. Here’s the kicker - you are supposed to pick “green“ out of those two, but if made to say the colors out loud you’ll quickly discover that brain constantly picks the option which was found through “language“, not “color“. You probably noticed the urge to choose the wrong option which made you slow down and correct yourself - such struggle is measured and report to persist in many people. Why brain prefers to choose the wrong option? I do not know. The effect occurs only if you actually know the word, because well, “青い“, for example, has no associations in your brain(unless you know japanese), there are no second pathway leading to a “color” memory, so - no conflict. Alternatively effect doesn’t occur if you fail recognize the word at all, so having poor vision helps to pass the challenge.
4.Where
So, after new and old memes are done being used and use each other, the next step is to put the modified information away for future use, untill new and better time comes to use it again. That doesn't mean it just lies there, dormant and motionless, the "long-term memory" is a very dynamic system too. A competition, of sorts. Or a treadmill, if another analogy is necessary. Some knowledge does remain undisturbed for decades, seemingly unaffected by external and internal pressures, learning how to ride a bike being a common example of such resistant skill which can be brought up from the depths of the memory even if you didn't use this mode of transport for 50 years, however other memes aren't so lucky.
It's a race against the void, because the brain likes to keep itself clean from unnecessary info, which is why it has a mechanism for erasing memes, forgetting them. I'm not aware of the finer details, but in general - everything you remember is on the clock. When the counter rings zero - the meme is gone. The decay is slow, not all memes are snapped out of existence simultaneously, minor details will disappear sooner than more important parts of whatever you have learned today.
What ensures the longevity for the meme? Remember the "strength markers"? Them. Memes associated with other "strong" memes will get to live longer. However, the comparison with the treadmill is apt, because "the clock" can be reset - every time you recall a meme, it gains a bit of it's strength back, ensuring it's longevity. Brain remembers what it uses often, so it will be remembered longer because it's useful. The system overall can be described with a such: use it or lose it, "it" being memes. This way the brain can guarantee only the most important knowledge remains inside of it, while freeing up the space from the junk.
N.B. Another way to think about it - elephants. It's a well known story, describing the strength of the memory of those creatures, telling us how their owners tie them with thick enough ropes when they are young, so they don't escape. Sounds like a standart practice, right? At the surface - yes, but the magic happens when the elephans grow into adulthood, the owners don't replace the ropes with something tougher. Why though? It grew up and became much stronger as well, the old methods of containment shouldn't be enough to hold the creature in place, but it does. Because the elephant doesn't try to escape. Because it remembers how it failed back in the past. And it doesn't think the ropes are no match for it's strength anymore. Because the strength of the experience doesn't wane. To doubt a memory and conclusions it created means it's not strong of an experience anymore. But it's strength doesn't decay, then you will always be certain of it's correctness.
If a meme has a "lifespan", then it can be divided into different stages.
A no-brainer move would be to start with a start and the end: "inception" and "void" stages (feel free to come up with better names); the tricky part is figuring out the parts inbetween. Well, i can add another two points of meme's life: "Incubation" and "Certainty". So - four stages. Now i should describe how each stage works, but i will not, because there's a minor caveat - i don't think these rules apply to single memes, only when they cluster into bigger groups the late-stage characteristics emerge. For a single meme it's basically a life of a fruit fly - it comes and goes, only bigger structures are actually capable of sustaining themselves.
Back to the topic:
I. "Inception". Congratulations, you saw some shit, and now it is going to be with you for a little while, occupying some segment of your RAM, where it's value is measured and place - designated, so the little brick can become a part of something bigger and beautiful. Not gonna take long, an act of blinking takes 100x more time. After the grouping is done the meme complex goes into the memory, where it does it's thing - waiting to be used and to build a brighter future. Or something.
Basicly early stages of adoption/infection, nothing special.
II. "Incubation". The meme complex grows through adding more pieces to itself, and forging new connections to other parts of the brain's archive.
This is the average stage of the average meme-plex, where a mental construct wrestles for it's life against other more or less "strong" 'plexes, at the risk of never be used again. All i said about how memes live and die applies here. It's and intermediate stage, where it isn't certain whether the memes will live or die longterm, and their position in the mental hierarchy is constantly shifting, and the abyss is everpresent. Sometimes it will win, sometimes lose the competition in the logical wrestling match, giving the steering wheel to some other memeplex. If you can't choose between two things - the choices presented are either at the stage II or I, i.e. - not strong enough to make a conclusive decision.
III and IV. I'm writing these together because the memeplex can fail to reach the third base and go straight into the garbage bin, the fourth stage, and i believe you understand the properties of it as well as i do.
With that out of the way, third stage - "Certainty". This is a curious one(read - i don't understand it), and it's apoint in meme's life when it bascially becomes all-powerfull. Within the limits of the system, of course. I don't exactly know how a meme complex gets to this level, but the frequency of "feeding" is major part of it, indubitably. If you see something often enough you'll become sure that this thing, in fact, exists, and is the way it appears. You've seen plenty of vases in your life, if someone shows you a dog and claims you can put roses in it, you'll think a lot of unpleasant thoughts about that person.
What makes this stage special? "Certain" memplex doesn't care about contradictions. Not a significant degree - some "damage" and alterations to the structure can still occur, but the rest will remain largely intact. You've seen plenty of vases in your life, if someone shows you an aquarium and claims you can put roses in it... you know how you'd react.
And you will not forget the things of which you are assured.
And that's the basic lifecycle of a meme.