Memes Dont Exist

What are memes? Memes are supposed to be the mind analogs of genes. Well, what are genes? Genes are linear digital encodings for proteins which are themselves linear chains of amino acids whose characteristic property is a continuous multi-dimensional shape and electrochemical properties.

Well, ideas are constructions of concepts which also have a continuous multi-dimensional shape and certain complex interactions with other ideas. So the correct analog of ideas is proteins and for exactly the same reason the analog of concepts is amino acids. Concepts are ideas in miniature but elementary and indivisible. Concepts are not digital but continuous, they are not linear chains but multi-dimensional, and they don't have any meaningful subunits. If they had subunits, they would be ideas and not concepts. Concepts are not memes.

Further, there isn't a bank of concepts in the human mind the same way that there's a bank of amino acids in a living body. In a living body, there are multiple instances of every amino acid, but in a living mind there is only a single unique instance of every concept. Whenever a mind creates a new thought, it either uses the exact same concept as other ideas use, or it creates a new concept with its own unique custom-made shape. When concepts are "replicated" from mind to mind, it is this shape which is replicated through some process that broadly resembles chiseling clay.

There is no such thing as a gene or DNA analog in the living mind, there is no digital encoding of thoughts and concepts. None has ever been identified and none ever will because the idea is just a bunch of horseshit and elbow grease. Memes aren't "speculative", memes are horseshit.

The real, human creative process is nothing like mere propagation by imperfect replication. -- RK

Memes are not supposed to be "the mind analogs of genes". Memes are units of culture that can spread via replication. Memes are not ideas or concepts (although ideas and concepts can be memes). Digital encoding is a red herring. If I show you how to do something and you do it, that something is a meme. It has replicated and as a replicator is subject to the rules that govern evolution. Those rules aren't don't rely on digital encoding, base pairs, alleles, subunits, etc. They apply to everything that replicates, changes and competes for limited resources. -- EricHodges

The "units of culture" are ideas, concepts and behaviour and just because they evolve doesn't mean anything. -- RK

It means a great deal that memes evolve. For one, it means we can apply the theory of adaptive dynamics to culture. It also provides a common theory for the study of interaction between genes and memes. -- EH

Just because ideas evolve doesn't mean you can use the same theory for the evolution of digital genes and non-digital ideas. -- RK

Memes are an abstraction (as are genes). If you refuse to use those abstractions you cut yourself off from a growing body of evolutionary theory. If memes evolve then you can use the underlying abstraction of evolution to study them. That was Dawkins' point. Evolution applies to more than just biology. Genes are just one instance of evolution. Memes are another. -- EH

Atoms are an abstraction, and atoms exist whether or not people choose to acknowledge them. Absolutely everything human beings deal with is an abstraction of some kind and so pointing out that something is an abstraction contains not the least bit of meaningful information. I don't "refuse" to use memes as an abstraction, the facts are that they don't exist and haven't offered evidence or counterargument to prove their existence. -- RK

MemesDontExist. Pass it on.

Not that MemesDontExist meme, again... Some crank from up in Canada starts ranting about memes, and soon it's replicated all over Wiki! Sheesh!
I believe you'll find that MemesAreMarxist? has been far more successful in recent eras, having dominated mental market share over the previous leader, Memes6&*13342-xist.