Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA13522 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 28 Jul 2000 16:00:28 +0100 Subject: Fwd: What's in a Meme? Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2000 10:57:12 -0400 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20000728145716.AAA17830@camailp.harvard.edu@[204.96.32.182]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
http://www.fastcompany.com/feature/meme.html
What's in a Meme?
Maybe a lot -- if information truly evolves the same way life does, we're
headed toward a brave new world of marketing.
by John Hoult
All hail the data king. Data scrolls through CNBC newscasts; it controls
space travel; it expedites your Amazon.com delivery; and it constitutes
the building blocks of life -- DNA. Author Matt Ridley calls DNA "the
autobiography of a species" in the subtitle of his book Genome (
HarperCollins, 2000 ). A genome, he argues, tells a story like a novel
and acts similar to the source code for a computer. Even to the casual
onlooker reading about today's massive genome maps, human DNA begins to
look more mundane than mysterious -- a thick and complicated book of
operating instructions. So if, as scientists and thinkers suggest, DNA
looks and acts like other information, then does it stand to reason that
other information evolves like DNA?
According to a new group of thinkers, the answer is yes. Nearly 30 years
ago, evolutionary theorist Richard Dawkins proposed this theory: The
fundamental components of ideas act just like genes, competing for brain
space the same way organisms vie for breathing space. He called these
basic idea-bits "memes."
Dawkins' reasoning opened a whole new field of thought called memetics.
Various scientists and idea merchants picked up the meme idea and ran
with it. Unleash Your Ideavirus -- the Fast Company cover story by Seth
Godin -- applies the meme theory to 21st-century marketing strategies and
concludes that infectious branding tidbits like Budweiser's "Wassup"
tagline and Pet.com's sock-puppet mascot spread among the populace like
voracious viruses. Godin proposes that marketing and memetic savvy,
combined with the broadcasting abilities of the Internet, allow business
ideas such as Hotmail and Evite to grow at a staggering rate that
pre-Internet word of mouth alone could not achieve.
Susan Blackmore, a psychologist and author of The Meme Machine, ( Oxford
University Press, 1999 ) has pushed the meme idea about as far as
anybody, but she says the basic idea is pretty simple. "All you need is
some kind of information that can be copied in various forms with
mistakes -- with variations," she says. "Most of the copies die out. The
few that get passed on are successful. They go on and get copied and
varied again. That's how evolution works."
Simple enough. But it's one thing to say an idea bears a resemblance to a
virus, and quite another to say an idea is a kind of virus. A lot of
people, scientists included, don't like the implications. Academics
quibble over memetic definitions, which remain vague. Others argue
point-blank that memetic theory can't be proved. Both groups have a
point. The definitions are subject to interpretation, and thinking leaves
no fossil record.
Most of us, though, don't like the idea of memes because they exclude
free will. In the meme scheme, a human becomes a breathing Xerox machine.
Susan Blackmore writes that most of our likes, dislikes, and beliefs are
only memes we've picked up along the way. Even the concept of "I" -- the
sense of self -- is just a meme, not really ours at all. Blackmore admits
to taking an extreme view. "It's more fun," she says. In the hyper-wired
world, she imagines memes leaving their human hosts behind and going
digital, eventually creating ideas and perhaps a new kind of
consciousness beyond our comprehension.
Not everyone takes the meme idea so far. Amherst College's Paul Ewald
studies the evolution of diseases and thinks of memes as a metaphor or
tool of explanation. "Certain cultural attributes are passed on at
greater rates than others," he says, suggesting humans have some control
over the memes they pass on. Ewald argues that, for the most part,
individuals steer clear of culture's harmful memes, like addiction, and
instead select more beneficent ones to hand down.
Since Dawkins' first proposal, memetic theory has been widely applied.
Whether a meme is a metaphor or a real entity, the theory does reinforce
much of what we intuit about the creation and long-term sustainability of
ideas:
- Ideas that move faster also change faster. To bolster creativity, get
people talking across your organization.
- Diversity means more creativity -- the wider variety of idea
generators, the greater possibility for a new innovation. We've entered a
new landscape of learning.
- Ideas flash around the globe faster than ever. That should mean more
new ideas than ever. A catchy idea will tear through a population,
especially if that population hasn't seen anything like it before.
- The Internet is a new world. New creatures have hatched. Now, selective
pressures like the need for profitability are bearing down. Evolutionary
theory predicts this is when real innovation happens. Lots of companies
will die, but some will find interesting, new ways to survive.
The Next Step?
Memetics promises marketers a more scientific way to reach consumers.
"Advertising agencies do memetic engineering all the time," says
Blackmore. "If you have this color and this shape, then you can sell to
this kind of person. It's already being made more efficient." The big
challenge for the future, according to Blackmore, isn't finding catchy
tunes and phrases; it's engineering the environment for a meme to catch
on.
Today's marketers take a page from the books of epidemiology. Find the
trendsetters, Seth Godin's powerful sneezers, and infect them. If you get
the timing right and achieve critical mass, you'll create a fashion, a
fad, an idea epidemic. Finding that timing presents a big limitation --
as of yet, nobody's come up with a surefire way to make the timing fit
the idea.
Blackmore envisions a future that transcends that barrier. Many organisms
alter their environment to suit them. Beavers, for instance, build dams,
making the lakes they like to live in and creating the marshy environment
that fosters the trees they like to eat. With a deeper understanding of
memetics, Blackmore thinks marketers and idea merchants will be able to
do the same in the world of ideas. People will be able to engineer the
mental landscape to favor their idea, to sculpt the mind-set of the
masses.
It's a pretty far-out idea, but some theorists say it's already happening
naturally. Dawkins, a confirmed atheist, says he looks at various human
belief systems -- cults, new-age therapies, even mainstream religion --
with suspicion. He argues that faith keeps people from asking essential
yet troubling questions about the world -- that religious doctrine
determines what ideas a person will or will not accept. Memetic theory
suggests that religion may be the most potent marketing model of the new
millenium. The question is, do we want it to be?
Some Limitations
The big problem with evolution, of course, is that no one controls it.
Meme production and proliferation can't be micromanaged; the system is
too complex. If and when scientists or marketers create idea-friendly
environments, success is still not guaranteed.
For one, people develop a resistance to ideas. Ever notice how quickly
marketing trends move among the young? Pokemon, Tickle Me Elmo, Barney. A
memetic explanation of this rapid, rabid adoption of ideas is that
children haven't developed the consumer immune system that adults have.
Of course, as Paul Ewald point outs, information confers that immunity --
a kind of skepticism meme.
Also, evolution is random. Even in a perfect world any idea can fall
flat, and human beings need to become better prognosticators for that to
change. Many ideas fail or succeed for reasons difficult to forsee -- new
technologies kill off older ones; styles and lifestyles change; attention
shifts elsewhere.
More importantly, many evolutionary routes don't lead anywhere. Blackmore
likens this dead end to the peak of a short and isolated mountain.
"Evolution only climbs hills," Blackmore says. "It doesn't descend. If it
gets to the top of a local hill, it won't be able to climb higher until
the landscape changes." The QWERTY keyboard is an example of an idea that
got stuck on a short peak -- until our mental landscape changes, we're
stuck typing with this anti-intuitive device.
To follow through on the mountain climbing metaphor, memetics can't yet
tell a business which idea will take it to the top. It only suggests
that, if you find yourself looking around at higher peaks, better start
at the bottom with a new idea and work your way up again.
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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