meme

an idea which gets passed from person to person

TRANSLATION

die Meme = kulturelle Erscheinung oder Verhaltenselement, das auf Nachahmung oder einem anderen nicht genetisch bedingten Vorgang beruht (according to Leo Dictionary)

STATISTICS

IN THE PRESS

Susan Blackmore's bold and fascinating book "The MEME Machine" pushes the new theory of memetics farther than anyone else has, including its originator Richard Dawkins."

(Amazon Book Review)

Did you
know?

meme

The word “meme” (pronounced like cream or dream) was coined by Richard Dawkins, Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, in his
1976 book The Selfish Gene. Memes tend to make copies of themselves and are therefore “replicators”, like genes. They are stored in human brains and passed on by
imitation.

As examples Dawkins suggested “tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches.” (p 192). Dawkins has also written about memes in The Extended Phenotype and in a book chapter entitled “Viruses of the Mind”. He considers religions to be among the most powerful of these mind viruses.

The word “meme” has recently been included in the Oxford English Dictionary where it is defined as follows “A self-replicating element of culture, passed on by imitation”.

Source: http://www.memes.org.uk/meme-lab/WELCOME.HTM

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