Week 3 - Assigned Reading Posting

Week 3 - Assigned Reading Posting

Meme theory is the theory that just like genes propagate through the gene pool via various methods (mainly sexual transmission), that memes (songs, fashion sense, and other ideas) propagate through society jumping from one brain to another. "When you plant a fertile meme in my mind you literally parasitize my brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme's propagation in just the way that a virus may parasitize the genetic mechanism of a host cell." (Richard Dawkins 1989)

I find this meme theory very plausible and agree with this theory, as there has to be a vehicle of transferring ideas from one person to another. I think that the name of these "memes" should more precisely describe exactly what they do, but then again the term "gene" really doesn't describe what it is or what it means.

Sources: Richard Dawkins,1976, The Selfish Gene, 1989 edition, Oxford University Press