What is a Meme?

What is a Meme?

An idea, style, or behavior that spreads from person to person is a meme.

They are transmitted from person to person through communication, imitation, different forms of media, and the behavior they generate in their hosts (Replication).

Memes don't always copy exactly when spread, this causes different versions of a meme to exist and even the creation of new memes (Mutation).

When memes group together they become a memeplex, this occurs when a group of memes transmits better when together rather than apart (Evolution). 

Through syncretism memes can combine with one another to form a new meme.

A meme can become extinct if it fails to spread.

Memes compete for dominance in order to survive and spread.

Using neuroimaging technology we can quantify changes in our minds during meme replication.

The memepool is the sum total of all memes in a culture.

Memetic Engineering is the intentional creation of a meme by combining multiple memes into one or just creating an entirely new meme, specifically to alter the behavior of others in society.

The actual content of a meme is a meme's memotype.

Someone taken over by a meme to the point their own survival does not matter is a memeoid.

Memetic Equilibrium is achieved when humans strive for personal value with respect to their culture's memepool.

Memes exist in the world of ideas, the environ-mental space.

Sources

• http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3118481/#s1
• http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meme
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1655585/meme
• http://www.alonewithmythought.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Idea.jpg