In 1976, Richard Dawkins introduced the concept of the meme in The Selfish Gene—a unit of cultural information that behaves like a gene: it copies itself, mutates, and undergoes selection. The idea proved so infectious that it became a meme itself: it entered science, spilled over into popular culture, morphed into internet folklore, and... got stuck.
I propose patching memetics via an IT metaphor. A meme is not a virus. A meme is mere data. The actual virus is the Narrative—the executable code of culture.
Key takeaways:
The human as a server, not a user: We are hosting providers for ideas.
Emotion is the spike protein of the narrative virus.
The user is a biological USB flash drive for AI.
A meme is a corpse. A narrative is a zombie.
Consciousness is a narrative that evolved into an Operating System.