W hen you see the word “meme,” what do you think of? For most UNC students, it is likely an online picture with a witty caption, such as the semi-literate shiba inus of “doge” fame that inspired the title of this column.
Readers not familiar with social media may know memes by the name of “fads.” More broadly, a meme is any cultural idea that is repeated and transmitted over time.
Examples of memes are as diverse as human societies and extend far beyond the “Grumpy Cat” of recent internet renown. Technologies such as the wheel, behaviors like dancing and even hashtags (Remember #kony2012?) are all examples of memes.
So what could memes possibly have to do with science?
The etymology of the word meme sheds light on its scientific origin. Coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in 1976, the word meme was modeled on the Greek word “mimeme” — to copy — and shortened to sound like “gene,” the word biologists use to describe a segment of DNA that codes for a protein.
The rationale for creating this term was to demonstrate how memes, like genes, could evolve by natural selection. For evolution to occur, both genes and memes need to meet 3 criteria: variation, replication and selection. A comparison of a hypothetical gene for fur color in rabbits and the meme for dancing in humans shows the utility of examining memes in this context.
Just like variation can exist in the gene for fur color in a population of rabbits, many different forms of the dance meme exist. Over time, new varieties can be created — a change in DNA can lead to the production of a different color fur, and the spontaneous addition of a new movement can radically transform a dance.
While replication of genes occurs through reproduction, replication of memes occurs when an idea is exchanged between people. For instance, individuals can learn a new dance through television, the internet or personal interactions on the dance floor.
