Memes, Memotype, Phemotype and Cultural Life

Memes and we are of primary importance to the operation and maintenance of cultural life. The vehicle through which these operations are accomplished is the harnessing together of us, memes and phemotypes. A meme is inherently a replicator. That is, its primary concern is to be copied as many times as is "humanly possible”. You, I and the rest of humanity are conscious self aware sentient beings swimming in a vast ocean of memes and phemotype cultural phenomena . Memotypes  and phemotypes are the necessary cultural tools we make and use to explore and enjoy the  rich cultural lives that we create.


A Genotype is the genetic blueprint information for building the body of a biological organism. A memotype is also blueprint information, but it's information  that instructs the building of cultural "organisms".  A memotype is a tight knit grouping of memes working together to build and maintain a given cultural artifact (In addition to things like The George Washington Bridge, 'The Price Is Right', Disney World and TGI Fridays,  "cultural artifact" includes human  behavior and experiences). This is similar to the genes in biology. Genes are organized in a cooperative set called a genotype. This genotype is a highly structured team working tightly together to build and maintain the body (phenotype) and (genetically determined behavior)  of a plant or animal. In an analogous manner a phemotype is a tight knit closely cooperating band of memes. The body of a  biological organism is the phenotypic expression of its genotype. similarly a "Phemotype" , or the "body" of a cultural artifact, is the cultural expression of that cultural artifact's memotype. 
 

Let's begin our foray into the world of memes, memotypes, phemotypes and the cultural lives they lead with:

 "FIRE":

A useful meme like the 'Fire Making' meme blueprint has been copied many times, and have survived through countless human generations. In fact the 'fire' blueprint meme has been a part of human cultural life for more than a million years. This meme instructs the making of cooking and heating types of fires, for example. Because these types of fires were and are important in our lives we constantly copy and use them. Like all memes, 'Fire' is replicated or copied when our children, friends and neighbors imitate what we do when they watch us make an actual cooking fire. The actual cooking fire experience (the 'fire' meme's phemotype expression) is imitated by our children and friends, and then they will memorize or write down (copy/replicate) the 'fire' meme (instructions/information) that they get from us.

The 'cooking fire' meme information has been copied countless times through countless generations of human culture and will continue to be replicated because this knowledge is crucially important in any and all human cultures in making a cooking fire. The 'cooking fire' phemotype, the actual cooking fire itself, is how the 'cooking fire’ meme instructions  are expressed and used in cultural life.

If we did not make and use these memotype-phemotype tools our culture would not continue to grow, develop and evolve. Without the blueprint know-how of memes, the operations of culture are not able to be maintained and passed on to future generations. Our human culture is constructed within a meme-matrix. Memes, their phemotypes and the cultural life they create that are passed on to our descendants survive; those that fail to to be passed on become extinct. A meme is in a life and death struggle with other rival memes to survive into future generations of our descendants

Due to this  rivalry,  a meme can become a  “problem child”. Because a meme “lives to be copied”, or replicated, it really does not care about anything else. It is in a life and death struggle with other meme rivals to be replicated. The motto of any meme is: 

“REPLICATE AS MANY TIMES AS IS HUMANLY POSSIBLE OR DIE!!”

You might think a meme’s interest will always coincide with your interests. Not always. For example, take a meme like

‘Suicide Bomber’. Like all memes,

its only purpose is to be copied. It will ‘do anything’ to be copied as many times as is “Humanly Possible”. It will join up with this meme:

"When I Die I Will Go To Heaven and be provided with 72 VIRGINS", whose only

‘purpose in life’, like all memes, is to be replicated as many times as is  
“Humanly Possible”.





Here is the problem with memes. Memes are two-edged swords.  The overwhelming majority are tools that are used to do good. However, there are very evil memes, evil viral memes, out there in the real world, and all they care about is making and spreading their  deadly virulent phemotypes in order to create pure havoc in the world. Meme-viruses can only operate by getting into people’s minds. They can literally control your mind and brainwash you into performing their evil deeds! (or, in the case of good memes,  GOOD WORKS!). Evil memes will make themselves very attractive to some people, take over their minds and will these people into evil monsters.  The "Suicide Bomber" meme that has made these men and women psychotic, convinces them that their destiny is to be martyrs for God. ISIS, for example, spreads evil and dangerous memes over the internet. They infect the minds of innocent youngsters and unassuming individuals, give them evil thoughts and make them behave like monsters; like beheading innocent men, women and children in the name of “Religion and God”. Memes will join up with other memes into evil syndicate meme-gangs in order to carry out their dirty evil deeds best.


The ganging together, for example, of the "Suicide Bomber" meme and the meme, "When I Die I Will Go To Heaven and be provided with 72 VIRGINS", will take over a susceptible mind easier than just the "Suicide Bomber" meme. The first meme is made more attractive by the second meme to an individual who is fanatic or psychotic enough (or Religiously fanatic enough) to strap a bomb to his body with the intent of blowing up and killing as many innocent men, women and children as he can ("In the name of Allaaaah!!!"). When these evil syndicate meme-gangs become viral they can do a lot of damage to many minds and to much innocent lives as is “Humanly Possible”. 

The "When I Die I Will Go To Heaven and be provided with 72 VIRGINS" meme-virus might have encouraged and emboldened the suicide-bomber-hijackers who murdered more than 3000 innocent souls when they utterly annihilated the World Trade Center Twin Towers on September 11th 2001.



Large worldwide meme syndicates like some organized religions pose a serious threat to the survival of humanity. Religions like Christianity and Islam infect billions of human minds worldwide. Fundamentalist Christians and Muslims feel very threatened by liberal western societies. The ideas of science and liberal democracy are becoming more accepted by educated people. The fundamentalist religionists consider science and liberal culture an "Evil Religion". The "Fundamentalist God" has tasked the fundamentalist to eradicate this "'EVIL' from the Face of The Earth". It appears science and liberal culture is in a life and death struggle with the worldwide organized religions controlled by fundamentalist Muslims and Christians. The last time fundamentalist religions ruled Earth, civilization was lost, and wondered in "The Dark Ages" for more than a thousand years!! As this struggle continues the fate of the world and civilization hangs in the balance.

As you can see, memes can take over our lives to accomplish their bidding. More times than not in your daily life the interests of memes and your interests coincide. However, When bad selfish memes get into your head they can control your mind and get you to behave in ways that can be quite harmful to you, your family, your dear friends and innocent individuals. Please, be mindful of how memes can use you; they may turn you into their tools.