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Memes, Mindworms, Memplexes &c.

🌐 public · created AE560915 (15.09.2026) · open in the standard editor view · 📽 open as presentation

baumhaus.digital/Studium Generale/Memes, Mindworms, Memplexes &c.
How do ideas spread, mutate, and survive? Why do we laugh when others laugh, adopt accents, hum songs that refuse to leave our heads, or suddenly find ourselves saying "actually"? This seminar explores the evolution of information through the lens of theory of memes, also known as memetics—the study of how cultural patterns replicate, vary, and undergo selection. Beginning with genes and the logic of biological evolution, we trace the emergence of memes as cultural replicators transmitted through imitation, communication, and media. Along the way we examine mirror neurons, contagious behaviours, habits, dopamine, earworms and mindworms, the Maluma–Takete effect, memetic complexes such as fashion, ideology, and religion, self-referentiality, the formation of the egoplex, viral phenomena, computer viruses and worms, apps, emojis, memecoins, and other contemporary manifestations of cultural evolution. Combining perspectives from evolutionary theory, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, linguistics, media studies, and computer science, the seminar invites participants to view culture itself as an evolving ecosystem of replicating patterns which often act and express themselves independently from what our bodies, minds and souls "actually" want.

Ancestors (2 superordinated paths)

root/ baumhaus.digital/ Klasse Leben/ WiSeAE56/ Memes, Mindworms, Memplexes &c.
root/ baumhaus.digital/ Studium Generale/ Memes, Mindworms, Memplexes &c.

Descendants (at least 103 branches originate here)

  • Memes, Mindworms, Memplexes &c.
    How do ideas spread, mutate, and survive? Why do we laugh when others laugh, adopt accents, hum songs that refuse to leave our heads, or suddenly find ourselves
    • is_parent Memes in Alltag 🔊
      Session 0 · Memetics begins at home.Before Internet memes, before ideology, before theory: gestures, tunes, habits, rituals, phrases, drawings, interfaces and e
      • is_parent Meme ·
        “A meme is whatever is copied from person to person.”— Susan Blackmore, working definitionFor today, let us start with this deliberately simple definition.
        ↝ is_linked → Saussure's theory of sign
      • is_parent Copied? ·
        Copying does not necessarily mean making an exact duplicate.You hear a joke.You remember the structure, forget several words, change a character......and tell i
        ↜ is_linked ← Reveal and exercise
      • is_parent Two Worlds ·
        external expression → perception → internal reconstruction → expressionA meme can appear outside us: as sound, gesture, image, text, object, ritual.It can be re
      • is_parent A Word of Warning ·
        Memetics is a theory among other theories.Human culture can also be studied through psychology, anthropology, sociology, cultural evolution, semiotics, media th
      • is_parent Not Everything That Spreads Is a Meme ·
        A virus spreads. That does not make it a cultural meme.Genes are copied. That does not make them memes.You discover by yourself that fire is hot. No person-to-p
      • is_parent Where Is the Meme? ·
        Is the meme the sentence?The idea expressed by the sentence?The memory in somebody's brain?The rule that allows the sentence to be reconstructed?The pattern dis
      • is_parent Memethical Engineering ·
        Memethical engineering is the deliberate design, modification, and circulation of memes and memetic environments in accordance with explicit ethical goals.For e
        ↜ is_linked ← Adolescence · the editor arrives
      • is_parent Engineering the Environment ·
        Memetic engineering asks: How can this spread?Memethical engineering must additionally ask: Should it spread?Who benefits?What disappears when it succeeds?Can p
      • is_parent Memes in Alltag
        Let us now temporarily leave theory behind.Look at ordinary life as a landscape of things passing from person to person.We will move from the smallest and faste
        • is_parent 1 · Contagion
          😮 yawning😂 laughter (e.g. Tanganyika laughter epidemic of 1962)👏 applause / standing ovation👀 looking where everybody else is looking🌊 the stadium waveThese ar
          • is_parent Experiment 🔒 ·
            One person suddenly looks intensely at the ceiling.How many people look too?Did information pass?Was anything learned?Would you call it a meme?
        • is_parent 2 · Gestures
          🤝 handshake ✋ high five 👊 fist bump ✌ peace sign 🫶 hand-heart air quotes 😘 kiss (hand ? cheek ? lips ?) nodding (vertical ? horizontal ?) A tiny movement can ca
          • is_parent Gesture = Movement + Convention ·
            The physical movement alone is not enough.A raised thumb means something because other people already know how to interpret it.The same movement can mean differ
        • is_parent 3 · Rituals
          🎂 birthday cake + candles + song + wish🥂 touching glasses before drinking🎆 counting down at New Year🪵 knocking on wood🤞 crossing fingers💰 throwing a coin into a
          • is_parent The Elevator ·
            Enter.Turn around.Face the door.Avoid prolonged eye contact.Become strangely silent.Who taught us this?Many everyday conventions are acquired without an explic
          • is_parent The Queue ·
            At the highest floor of the Eiffel Tower, there are two elevators facing each other. If human beings were fully rational beings, two equally long queues should
        • is_parent 4 · Words
          “Actually...”“However...”“You know?”“At the end of the day...”euh… [øː] , bah ouiблядь, f*ck, vole ...Language is full of units which seem to "live their own l
          • is_parent Catchphrases ·
            A phrase can detach itself from its original situation.It becomes reusable.People recognize it.They repeat it because others recognize it.Recognition itself can
        • is_parent 5 · Earworms
          A melody enters through the ears.Hours later it is still playing internally.You hum it.Somebody else hears it.Now it may inhabit another mind.An earworm is almo
          • is_parent Sound Memes ·
            nursery rhymesfootball chantsadvertising jinglesmelodies with changing lyricsTikTok audio fragments detached from their original contextThe carrier can change w
        • is_parent 6 · Drawings
          ♥ a heart that looks nothing like an anatomical heart★ a five-pointed star☀ a circle with rays🏠 a square house with a triangular roof💡 a light bulb meaning “ide
          • is_parent The Cool S ·
            Who knows how to draw the “Cool S”?Who taught you?Where did you first see it?Do you know who invented it?Why did generations of schoolchildren reproduce it?A ne
        • is_parent 7 · Interface Memes
          💾 floppy disk = save🔍 magnifying glass = search⚙ gear = settings🗑 bin = delete♥ heart = like☰ three lines = menuThe original object can disappear while its symb
          • is_parent Memes Can Outlive Their World ·
            Many people click a floppy disk icon without ever having saved a file onto a floppy disk.The symbol has become detached from the technology that produced it.Its
        • is_parent 8 · Fashion
          ripped jeansmulletsmoustachesCrocsrolling trouser legsparticular sneaker stylesblack clothing in particular creative milieusBodies become media.
          • is_parent Fashion Evolves ·
            Someone adopts a style.Others notice it.Some imitate it.Some exaggerate it.Some reject it.Some revive an older version thirty years later.Replication produces v
        • is_parent 9 · Food & Household Knowledge
          family recipessourdough starterscutting sandwiches diagonallyparticular ways of folding pizza“five-second rule”putting a wet phone into riceUseful, useless and
          • is_parent Transmission ≠ Truth ·
            A meme does not have to be true to spread.It does not have to be useful.It does not have to benefit its host.It merely needs properties that allow further trans
        • is_parent 10 · Social Formats ·
          the elevator pitchbrainstorming with Post-itsthe agenda slidethe TED-style talk“three things I learned...”the Venn diagramthe iceberg diagramSometimes the meme
        • is_parent 11 · Internet Memes
          image macrosreaction GIFs“POV:”“starter pack”“nobody: / absolutely nobody:”“tell me X without telling me X”“how it started / how it's going”The Internet did not
          • is_parent Template + Variation ·
            Internet memes make one property especially visible:a stable template + many mutations.Distracted Boyfriend.Drake Hotline Bling.Woman Yelling at a Cat.The image
        • is_parent 12 · Stories & Rumours ·
          urban legendsschoolyard rumoursghost stories“a friend of a friend once...”life hacksfolk explanationsStories are compressed, reconstructed and altered every tim
        • is_parent 13 · Beliefs ·
          superstitionsstereotypesideas about successideas about beautyideas about what a “proper career” looks likeideas about how families, schools or workplaces should
      • is_parent From Meme to Memeplex
        Memes rarely live alone.They support, trigger and protect one another.A fashion includes clothes, vocabulary, gestures, music, places and identities.A professio
        ↜ is_linked ← Five roles in the memetic game
        • is_parent Replication ·
          Something is encountered.Something is reconstructed.Something is expressed again.Another person encounters it.Replication does not require perfect duplication.
        • is_parent Variation ·
          Misremember it.Translate it.Improve it.Simplify it.Exaggerate it.Parody it.Combine it with another meme.Every transmission is an opportunity for mutation.
        • is_parent Selection ·
          Some variants disappear.Some are remembered.Some are repeated.Some fit a particular medium particularly well.Some become part of institutions and persist for ce
        • is_parent What Makes a Meme Successful? ·
          easy to remember?easy to reproduce?emotionally intense?funny?useful?beautiful?shocking?socially rewarded?already familiar?And are these the same properties that
        • is_parent The Memethical Question ·
          A communication system optimized only for replication may reward whatever replicates best.But the fastest-spreading cultural environment is not necessarily the
      • is_parent Exercise · Find One
        Think of one meme you encountered today.Not necessarily an Internet meme.Where did you encounter it?What was its external form?What did you reconstruct internal
        ↜ is_linked ← Which memes win? ↜ is_linked ← Reveal and exercise
        • is_parent Exercise · Classify It ·
          gesture?ritual?phrase?melody?visual convention?interface convention?fashion?social script?story or belief?memeplex?Or perhaps: not a meme at all?
        • is_parent Three Questions to Keep ·
          1. What is being copied?2. Why does this variant survive?3. What kind of cultural environment does its survival create?
      • is_parent Memes in Alltag ·
        A handshake.A birthday song.A stupid little drawing in a school notebook.A phrase you suddenly notice yourself saying.A floppy disk that survived its floppy dis
    • is_parent The Second Replicator 🔊
      Replication + Variation + Selection = Evolution
      • is_parent Before Darwin ·
        For most of human history, the diversity of life was explained by one simple idea: species are fixed, created once, unchanging.A rabbit begets a rabbit. An oak
      • is_parent Darwin's Insight ·
        In 1859, Charles Darwin proposed something radical: species are not fixed.They change, slowly, over generations — new species arise from old ones through
      • is_parent The Engine of Evolution ·
        Replication + Variation + Selection = EvolutionDarwin never used these three words this way — but this is the abstract engine hiding inside his argument.T
        ↜ is_linked ← Replicate · Vary · Select
      • is_parent Replication ·
        Something must be copied from one generation to the next.Offspring resemble parents — not perfectly, but closely enough that traits persist.Darwin did not
      • is_parent Variation ·
        No copy is perfect.Within any population, individuals differ — in size, colour, behaviour, shape.Some of this variation is heritable: it gets passed on, i
      • is_parent Selection ·
        Not every variant survives. Not every survivor reproduces equally.Resources are limited; environments are demanding.Whatever traits make an individual slightly
      • is_parent Darwin's Finches ·
        In 1835, Darwin collected small birds across the Galápagos Islands — a few hundred kilometres off the coast of Ecuador.Back in London, ornithologis
      • is_parent One Ancestor, Many Beaks ·
        The beaks matched the food available on each island: hard seeds, soft fruit, insects, nectar.Darwin's explanation: all the finches descended from a single ances
      • is_parent Why Finches Matter ·
        The finches are not proof of evolution by themselves — but they are an unusually clean illustration of the engine in action, isolated on real islands, at
      • is_parent Universal Darwinism ·
        Darwin described biological evolution. But notice: nothing in the three-step engine mentions DNA, cells, or carbon chemistry.It only requires: entities that are
        ↝ is_linked → Oceania (Room 215)
      • is_parent Beyond Carbon ·
        The pattern shows up again and again, once you know to look for it:your immune system selects among antibody variants for the ones that bind an intruder;compute
      • is_parent Dawkins' Reframing ·
        In 1976, Richard Dawkins published The Selfish Gene — and reframed the whole story.It is not organisms that are the true unit of selection, he argued. It
      • is_parent Replicators and Vehicles ·
        Two roles, easy to confuse:Replicator — the thing that gets copied. The gene.Vehicle — the thing that is built, survives, and reproduces, carrying r
      • is_parent A Question Dawkins Asked ·
        If the gene is just one possible kind of replicator……could there be others? Things that are copied, vary, and are selected — but are made of
      • is_parent The Second Replicator ·
        “I think that a new kind of replicator has recently emerged on this very planet… I shall call it a meme.”— Richard Dawkins, The Selfish
      • is_parent Genes and Memes Compared ·
        Gene — replicated via reproduction; vehicle: the body; variation: mutation; selection: survival & reproduction.Meme — replicated via imitation;
        ↜ is_linked ← Five roles in the memetic game
      • is_parent Ideas in Motion ·
        We began with finches on volcanic islands and ended with an idea that may be living, right now, inside each of you.If memes are real replicators, then minds are
      • is_parent The Altruism Puzzle ·
        Nature is full of altruism — vervet monkeys shout alarm calls that draw a predator's attention to themselves, worker bees die defending the hive, parents starve
    • is_parent Imitation, social learning, dopamine &c.
      Freud, Dawkins, Rizzolatti
    • is_parent Cultural evolution 🔊
      • is_parent Oceania (Room 215) ·
        Do different ships and boats contain a recipe for their own construction / replication ? How much information is missing, who and how provides it ? How do diffe
        ↜ is_linked ← Universal Darwinism
      • is_parent Sounds of the world (Room 217) ·
        Why do some sounds (= air vibration waves), some combinations of sounds (= melodies & harmonies) as well as artefacts whose function is to produce
      • is_parent Polynesia (Room 219) ·
        Is cannibalism a meme ? If yes, should (art)works spreading such memes be forbidden by Law ?
      • is_parent First nations (Room 202) ·
        This is a transformation mask of Kwakwaka’wakw people, one among First Nations who practiced the gift-giving ceremony known as potlatch.
      • is_parent Amazonas (Room 206) ·
        Want to have a hammock seminar ?Starte eine Kampagne. Stelle ein Antrag. Genieße den Hängematteuntericht.
    • is_parent The Fascist Memplex: How Fascism Replicates, Mutates & Spreads ·
      ... and how to defeat it
    • is_parent Earworms, mindworms, moving memes::Fashion, Style, Art &c. ·
      Earworms, mindworms, moving memes::Fashion, Style, Art &c.
    • is_parent Mediated memes, Urban memes ·
      Mediated memes, Urban memes
    • is_parent Memplexes ·
      Memplexes, Religions, Ideologies, Self-reference
    • is_parent Memes in Law, Politics & Propaganda ·
      Memes in Law, Politics & Propaganda
    • is_parent Memes & Cyberspace ·
      Memes & Cyberspace
    • is_parent Memes, Memecoins, AIs ·
      Memes, Memecoins, AIs
    • is_parent Memes revisited ·
      Memes revisited
    • is_parent The Congress ·
      The Congress
Impressum