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The trouble with memes : Inference versus imitation in cultural creation
1CNRS, 9 rampe de l'observatoire, 66660 Port, Vendres, France. satran@umich.edu.
Human Nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)
|July 21, 2015
Summary
Memetics, the study of cultural transmission, faces challenges from cognitive science. Human minds, with their modularity, lead to information "mutation" rather than high-fidelity replication, impacting cultural evolution.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Science
- Cultural Evolution
- Memetics
Background:
- Memes are conceptualized as cultural units replicating via imitation, analogous to genes undergoing Darwinian selection.
- Traditional memetics assumes high-fidelity transmission of cultural information, similar to genetic replication.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of human cognitive modularity on cultural information transmission.
- To re-evaluate the memetic model in light of cognitive science findings.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of cognitive science research on human mental modularity.
- Theoretical examination of information transmission fidelity in cultural contexts.
Main Results:
- Cognitive modularity of human minds challenges the high-fidelity transmission assumption of memetics.
- Cultural information undergoes frequent "mutation" during communication, leading to varied creations.
- Information susceptible to modular processing exhibits traits like ease of acquisition, transmission, survival, recurrence, and variation.
Conclusions:
- High-fidelity transmission of cultural information is rare, contrary to memetic assumptions.
- The modular nature of human cognition drives the "mutation" and variation of cultural information.
- Understanding cognitive modularity is crucial for a more accurate model of cultural evolution.
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