Memetics: The science of silly internet memes gives us some fascinating insight into the r/K selection "gene wars"

[12StringSamurai]

In "Why people love and hate Donald Trump," Stefan and Vox Day had a fascinating little tangential conversation about how the same patterns of behavior and ideas seem to pop up independently of each other in different times and places in human history.  That got me to thinking about memetics, which is the relatively new science of studying human thought and behavior as a replicating system that's subject to Darwinian Natural Selection.

 

The only concept from this field of study that seems to be in the public consciousness is the word "meme," usually used to describe silly internet images and videos.  There is a lot more to it, and after applying some concepts from memetics to the r/K selection problems Stefan has raised I actually came up with some outside the box ideas for how we might be able to improve this situation.

 

There's a lot to it, so I made a video explaining the basics of memetics and some of my thoughts on how it applies to the observed r and K reproductive strategies in human demographics.  I'm presenting it here for discussion, and I'm planning on making some follow up videos expanding on these ideas for anyone who might be interested. 

 

 

Thanks for reading! 

[shirgall]

[rosencrantz]

The trickster type (Pepe) is an archetype that appears in many culture. La Wik says
 

Lewis Hyde describes the Trickster as a "boundary-crosser".^[2] The Trickster crosses both physical and often breaks societal rules. Tricksters "...violate principles of social and natural order, playfully disrupting normal life and then re-establishing it on a new basis."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster

 

[Mister Mister]

This was an excellent exposition of the topic.  I was aware of the basic concept from reading the Selfish Gene, but never explored it in this detail.

[Guest Gee]

Information theory?

[Magnetic Synthesizer]

haha 11:30, I think the view of memetics and genetics are the reason why these topics are emotionally charged. It's because they are close to inconvienient truths (to some).

[Rventurelli]

Overall an excellent video. Would just disagree with the program being broadcast in Spanish would be wonderful. it would not be, by the same reason that bilingual schools are a failure -- it actually acts as a shield to prevent assimilation. it keeps it possible for Spanish speaking people to get along by using their mother language, instead of putting them in sink-or-swim situations where they have no other option to succeed than to learn the language of the country.

Kids that go to bilingual school might learn English, but they do so with an accent, and do not learn it as well as they know Spanish because they will most likely have as their peer group other kids who do not use English as their main language. I lived for a while with Russians. The father arrived in the country 20 years ago and barely speaks any English at all, he probably knows ten phrases, and even then, with an ultra heavy accent. How? He moved to a neighborhood where the majority spoke Russian (although ethnically they were not Russian) and therefore it was never necessary for him to learn English.