Are memes just the extended phenotype?
This thread is filled with misinformation. Evolution and criteria for evolution have been described in rather general terms in mathematical biology. Richard Dawkins’ Idea of Universal Darwinism is encoded into a family of equations known mainly by the ubiquituously used replicator equation, applied in evolutionary game theory to biological situations as well as economic and strategic interactions. All that is required for evolution is replication. Despite the many opinions to the contrary, there is no solid argument against memetics. Although it is correct that the definition is of a meme has not stabilized, it would be rather presumptuous to dismiss the entire framework based on that alone. Gregor Mendel had no idea was a gene was when he conducted his pea-plant experiments but that did not stop him from observing the evolutionary patterns in action. (Similarly, mathematical concepts are often researched for decades before the final definitions are laid down.) Technology has not advan
