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Genes and memes
Hossam Badrawi
Professor Akkad says that when we link ideas to people, we deprive ourselves of the good idea when it comes from the opposite, and we get involved in the ridiculous idea as long as it comes from a friend.
History says that the owner of a new idea may be considered a criminal within a strict cultural framework until his idea succeeds.
Ibn Rushd says that ideas have wings and their spread cannot be curbed, even if we burn the books that contain them or kill the person who invented them.
I found that I may not be convinced of an idea, but I do not quarrel with the thinker. I liked Galileo’s saying, “It is easy to understand any truth after discovering it, but the idea is in discovering it.” A person may die, and nations may rise or be undermined, but the idea continues to live, for ideas do not end. Its validity is if it can confront the constants that the public is comfortable believing, and we must understand that an idea becomes powerful when it seizes the conscience of the masses or is imposed by some people through repetition in the minds of the masses…and there has become science on how to do this in the modern era, and to create facts that have no proof. It may spread and is not valid.
What does “cultural evolution” mean?
A question I had not thought about until I read a book by Clinton Richard Dickens entitled “The Selfish Gene” and another entitled “The Extended Phenotype.”
When he published his two books on the theory of the evolution of ideas, and coined the term “meme,” I delved deeper and found that ideas are actually similar to genes. Genes carry genetic information within them that is transmitted and reproduced, just as ideas carry information and knowledge that is transmitted and reproduced, but by different means. In the case of genetic material, DNA carries information, which is chemical instructions that guide the cell and dictate how to build the necessary proteins that the organism’s body needs to survive and reproduce, whether that organism is a bacteria that we can only see with a microscope, or a huge organism like a whale. Or an elephant, for example,
There is an incentive within the structure of creation’s genes to reproduce, to make more copies of the same creature using its genetic material.
Without this motivation, the genetic material dies and the creature disappears.
Our genetic material shares interesting and distinctive features with ideas, myths, and harsh life lessons, all of which contain messages and a drive to reproduce, multiply, and spread.
Although there is a big difference between biological life and ideas, there is a link between the two. Self-replicating and self-dividing ideas are very similar to genes, which is what prompted Dickens to formulate his theory, and he came up with the term “memes” equal to “genes” (gene=mem).
The reproduction and transmission of information is the basic underlying principle common to genes and memes. Charles Darwin realized and documented his ideas about the principles of evolution through natural selection, and despite the enormous amount he wrote about it, his research revolved around three basic principles: reproduction, mutations, and selection. Natural (survival of the fittest). If we reformulate these three concepts in the context of what we are talking about, then knowledge and information multiply, mutations occur in it, new ideas arise from them, and the most suitable and fittest remain. In the context of this, genes and memes become similar, and this is what is called the science of “memetics,” which may be the basis of the science of evolution. Human knowledge and ideas and their interpretation.
The definition of a “meme” is simple: it is merely an idea, concept, information, or opinion that can be passed from one mind to another, which creates in a person the motivation and desire to pass it on and transmit it to others. A “meme” is any piece or piece of information that is transmitted by minds, through any possible mechanism.
Genes and memes are both self-replicating information that reproduce in different ways, but with the same methodology. The first is through biochemical processes and the second is through communication and contact between one person and another, or one people and another, but in essence they are just information. More importantly, the same information contained in genes and memes constitutes the motivating force and driving force for their reproduction and multiplication.
The life of a meme has a cycle of transmission and retention, and memes – like genes – differ in their ability to replicate, as successful memes survive and spread while invalid memes disappear and are forgotten.
Memes first need retention. The longer a meme persists in a group of people, the greater its chances of spreading.
But retention is not enough to keep a meme going for a long time, so memes need to travel.
Information is transmitted either vertically (from parent to child) or horizontally by infection such as (viruses). Memes can reproduce and multiply vertically or horizontally within one biological generation. Memes may also remain dormant for a long period of time.
Memes spread by copying from one mind to another through communication and sometimes by imitation. Imitation usually includes copying behavior from one individual to another. Communication may be direct or indirect, as memes are transmitted from one individual to another through a copy stored in a non-animal source such as poetry, books, or musical pieces and films.
For a “meme” to spread, it must have some of the characteristics and characteristics that historical popular religions and myths needed, such as its believability, that it relate to a large number or all of society, that it be easy to spread and transmit, and that the climate be completely prepared for it or completely against it, In both cases, spread is more possible.
Ignorance generates more confidence and pride than knowledge does. Those who know only a little are the ones who assert that problems will not be solved with knowledge, but rather with faith and believing what has no proof. This belief multiplies, spreads, undergoes mutations, and is filtered out over time.
Here I would like to go back to history in the emergence of the “meme” of fanaticism and extremism. The “meme” of fanaticism began with absolutes in thought, then with denouncing those who differ religiously as infidels, then the desire to eliminate everyone who does not adhere to the majority’s faith….
Hossam Badrawi
Professor Akkad says that when we link ideas to people, we deprive ourselves of the good idea when it comes from the opposite, and we get involved in the ridiculous idea as long as it comes from a friend.
History says that the owner of a new idea may be considered a criminal within a strict cultural framework until his idea succeeds.
Ibn Rushd says that ideas have wings and their spread cannot be curbed, even if we burn the books that contain them or kill the person who invented them.
I found that I may not be convinced of an idea, but I do not quarrel with the thinker. I liked Galileo’s saying, “It is easy to understand any truth after discovering it, but the idea is in discovering it.” A person may die, and nations may rise or be undermined, but the idea continues to live, for ideas do not end. Its validity is if it can confront the constants that the public is comfortable believing, and we must understand that an idea becomes powerful when it seizes the conscience of the masses or is imposed by some people through repetition in the minds of the masses…and there has become science on how to do this in the modern era, and to create facts that have no proof. It may spread and is not valid.
What does “cultural evolution” mean?
A question I had not thought about until I read a book by Clinton Richard Dickens entitled “The Selfish Gene” and another entitled “The Extended Phenotype.”
When he published his two books on the theory of the evolution of ideas, and coined the term “meme,” I delved deeper and found that ideas are actually similar to genes. Genes carry genetic information within them that is transmitted and reproduced, just as ideas carry information and knowledge that is transmitted and reproduced, but by different means. In the case of genetic material, DNA carries information, which is chemical instructions that guide the cell and dictate how to build the necessary proteins that the organism’s body needs to survive and reproduce, whether that organism is a bacteria that we can only see with a microscope, or a huge organism like a whale. Or an elephant, for example,
There is an incentive within the structure of creation’s genes to reproduce, to make more copies of the same creature using its genetic material.
Without this motivation, the genetic material dies and the creature disappears.
Our genetic material shares interesting and distinctive features with ideas, myths, and harsh life lessons, all of which contain messages and a drive to reproduce, multiply, and spread.
Although there is a big difference between biological life and ideas, there is a link between the two. Self-replicating and self-dividing ideas are very similar to genes, which is what prompted Dickens to formulate his theory, and he came up with the term “memes” equal to “genes” (gene=mem).
The reproduction and transmission of information is the basic underlying principle common to genes and memes. Charles Darwin realized and documented his ideas about the principles of evolution through natural selection, and despite the enormous amount he wrote about it, his research revolved around three basic principles: reproduction, mutations, and selection. Natural (survival of the fittest). If we reformulate these three concepts in the context of what we are talking about, then knowledge and information multiply, mutations occur in it, new ideas arise from them, and the most suitable and fittest remain. In the context of this, genes and memes become similar, and this is what is called the science of “memetics,” which may be the basis of the science of evolution. Human knowledge and ideas and their interpretation.
The definition of a “meme” is simple: it is merely an idea, concept, information, or opinion that can be passed from one mind to another, which creates in a person the motivation and desire to pass it on and transmit it to others. A “meme” is any piece or piece of information that is transmitted by minds, through any possible mechanism.
Genes and memes are both self-replicating information that reproduce in different ways, but with the same methodology. The first is through biochemical processes and the second is through communication and contact between one person and another, or one people and another, but in essence they are just information. More importantly, the same information contained in genes and memes constitutes the motivating force and driving force for their reproduction and multiplication.
The life of a meme has a cycle of transmission and retention, and memes – like genes – differ in their ability to replicate, as successful memes survive and spread while invalid memes disappear and are forgotten.
Memes first need retention. The longer a meme persists in a group of people, the greater its chances of spreading.
But retention is not enough to keep a meme going for a long time, so memes need to travel.
Information is transmitted either vertically (from parent to child) or horizontally by infection such as (viruses). Memes can reproduce and multiply vertically or horizontally within one biological generation. Memes may also remain dormant for a long period of time.
Memes spread by copying from one mind to another through communication and sometimes by imitation. Imitation usually includes copying behavior from one individual to another. Communication may be direct or indirect, as memes are transmitted from one individual to another through a copy stored in a non-animal source such as poetry, books, or musical pieces and films.
For a “meme” to spread, it must have some of the characteristics and characteristics that historical popular religions and myths needed, such as its believability, that it relate to a large number or all of society, that it be easy to spread and transmit, and that the climate be completely prepared for it or completely against it, In both cases, spread is more possible.
Ignorance generates more confidence and pride than knowledge does. Those who know only a little are the ones who assert that problems will not be solved with knowledge, but rather with faith and believing what has no proof. This belief multiplies, spreads, undergoes mutations, and is filtered out over time.
Here I would like to go back to history in the emergence of the “meme” of fanaticism and extremism. The “meme” of fanaticism began with absolutes in thought, then with denouncing those who differ religiously as infidels, then the desire to eliminate everyone who does not adhere to the majority’s faith….
“Memes” of fanaticism are created by ignorance in all ages. The more ignorant a person becomes, the more he evades dialogue and the more he insists on what he thinks is absolute. He cannot convince others of his beliefs, which he obtained in advance and which were prepared by humans who considered themselves the protectors of religion and imposed their control in the name of God over the rest. Humans around them…and history tells us that the method of imposing these beliefs was by spreading the call, sometimes through motivation and sometimes by force and oppression. There is no objection to killing, and even the massacres that history has described more often.
The Jewish religion, for example, began by making God the god of the children of Israel only, and embodied him, and the meme of fanaticism began and spread it, and this “meme” multiplied and invaded the “memes” of Christianity and, unfortunately, even Islam as well..
Memes multiply and cause mutations, and only the most suitable and best of them remain. This requires a long time, not in the tens, but in the thousands. Therefore, with my optimism and future outlook, I expect the extinction of the “memes” of fanaticism and the survival of tolerance and love for humanity, but we must spread our positive ideas and dialogue with our children. And our youth because ideas with wings need motivation, protection, and creating a climate for them to multiply in the face of mutations of ignorance.
The Ten Commandments of Moses and their like in all cultures of humanity, the calls for love and tolerance that Jesus preached, the noble morals and the mercy and justice of the Creator, and the call to learning and raising the status of scholars that Muhammad brought are “memes” in the sense of the word that have spread and become part of humanity, but they contradict and confront “memes.” Ignorance, tyranny, violence, harshness, intimidation, intimidation, and single-mindedness.
What’s new is the “Internet meme,” a concept that now spreads rapidly from person to person, mostly via email, blogs, forums, image boards, social networking sites, instant messaging, social news sites, and visual sharing sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
This represents a development in the spread of memes whose spread is interfered with by modern technology. It does not represent the natural spread of memes as was the case in the past. The same thing happens in human-made genetic mutations, which are not consistent with Darwin’s theory of natural selection. These manufactured mutations may lead in the future to a fundamental change in the form and behavior of creatures and may lead to a disturbing and frightening imbalance.
Nature, over millions of years, gradually led to what we are now as humans, biologically, and to the spread of certain memes linked to the growth of the human mind, imagination, and ability to comprehend. However, human intervention and use of science to achieve specific goals may reverse the scales of progression, and create a new future that does not depend on natural evolution. Humanity knows it before and may not be prepared for it.
The Jewish religion, for example, began by making God the god of the children of Israel only, and embodied him, and the meme of fanaticism began and spread it, and this “meme” multiplied and invaded the “memes” of Christianity and, unfortunately, even Islam as well..
Memes multiply and cause mutations, and only the most suitable and best of them remain. This requires a long time, not in the tens, but in the thousands. Therefore, with my optimism and future outlook, I expect the extinction of the “memes” of fanaticism and the survival of tolerance and love for humanity, but we must spread our positive ideas and dialogue with our children. And our youth because ideas with wings need motivation, protection, and creating a climate for them to multiply in the face of mutations of ignorance.
The Ten Commandments of Moses and their like in all cultures of humanity, the calls for love and tolerance that Jesus preached, the noble morals and the mercy and justice of the Creator, and the call to learning and raising the status of scholars that Muhammad brought are “memes” in the sense of the word that have spread and become part of humanity, but they contradict and confront “memes.” Ignorance, tyranny, violence, harshness, intimidation, intimidation, and single-mindedness.
What’s new is the “Internet meme,” a concept that now spreads rapidly from person to person, mostly via email, blogs, forums, image boards, social networking sites, instant messaging, social news sites, and visual sharing sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.
This represents a development in the spread of memes whose spread is interfered with by modern technology. It does not represent the natural spread of memes as was the case in the past. The same thing happens in human-made genetic mutations, which are not consistent with Darwin’s theory of natural selection. These manufactured mutations may lead in the future to a fundamental change in the form and behavior of creatures and may lead to a disturbing and frightening imbalance.
Nature, over millions of years, gradually led to what we are now as humans, biologically, and to the spread of certain memes linked to the growth of the human mind, imagination, and ability to comprehend. However, human intervention and use of science to achieve specific goals may reverse the scales of progression, and create a new future that does not depend on natural evolution. Humanity knows it before and may not be prepared for it.
