Abstract Replicators?

Through the course of time different kinds of replicators have started to develop, but only on the human body, making us different than other survival machines. Culture has made us different, and has, metaphorically, taken the form of a primeval soup, similar to the one that created replicators. And thus, a special kind of replicator, unique to humans, has developed in our brain, and is commonly called as a meme. The word meme can be defined as "an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture." This kind of replicator not gene, is different from the rest, however it still possesses the same characteristics as the rest: longevity, fecundity, and copying fidelity. 

Memes are not genes, they are not physical, but they are rather abstract, and obviously the replicate in different ways."Just as genes propagare themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense can be called imitation" (Pg. 192) Memes have a sense of survival, just like genes. Memes also tend to compete against each other for attention, popularity and time. A meme's success can measured on how society perceives it, whether if its popular or not. The more popular, the higher chances of surviving it has. 

"When we die there are two things we can leave behind us genes and memes."(p. 199) Our genes will be passed on to many generations through our blood, having an impact on our descendants. However, as generations pass by, we start to fade. On the other hand, memes do not disappear through time, they just adapt and change. Memes have the possibility of outliving our gene combination and the memory others have of us. Memes that have an impact on society can live to be very old, even immortal, they can change and adapt as time passes, but they still wont die.  


Genes are not designed nor were created to be immortal, that through time they have become immortal is different. Genes, are prone to change because time brings change, in other words evolution. However, memes,  can last to live for a longer time than genes. They will not be exactly the same as they were at the beginning, since ideas change to fit in depending on the time and place, but their original essence will remain through many generations, and so revealing the replicators immortality.