Talk:Meme

I have seen a small clip of Indianna Jones that had was edited like this. But frankly, who cares? This is like Wikipedia's article on 'duh.' TheComputerWizard

Strange illustration

Cut:

The Internet has been a source for the creation and prorogation of what many feel are memes. On the Internet an idea can be developed and quickly acquire modifications from users around the world such that the root idea becomes the basis for multiple spin-off ideas, subsets of ideas, and other similar iterations. In this sense, a "meme" evolves, taking on a life of its own through the contributions of users of varied cultural backgrounds.

Many "memes" are humorous in nature. "All Your Base Are Belong to Us" was an early Internet "meme," and "lolcat" is a popular emergent meme. Other memes focus on potential dangers, such as cell phones causing fires at gas pumps.

This "example" or illustration is misleading in the same way that the Icons of Evolution exposed by Jonathan Wells are misleading. --Ed Poor ^Talk 08:17, 27 October 2007 (EDT)

The idea behind the illustration is that the information is the subject (or mover), propagating itself as in Dawkins's theory of The Selfish Gene. It falsely anthropomorphizes the inert meme (like a gene), because someone or something must make the changes. It is a clever and sophisticated way to sidestep the need for a Designer to make the changes.

Every idea that morphs into another idea has been changed by a human being. The idea itself is passive. --Ed Poor ^Talk 08:20, 27 October 2007 (EDT)

Merge

Since the idea apparently originated with Richard Dawkins, I suggest we merge the 'article' to his page - along with his other ideas. If there are too many ideas there, then perhaps in an article on his book, The Selfish Gene which (I presume) is about a closely related topic.

Dawkins apparently believes that genes and "memes" propagate, in effect, themselves - much as pollen "spreads itself around" by employing bees. --Ed Poor ^Talk 22:08, 17 August 2008 (EDT)