Richard Dawkins coined the phrase, and Dennet’s use of it made it popular, it’s a reference to genes but means any self replicating idea that takes root in society and is talked about at length in The Selfish Gene under his section about cultural memes. Which is quite apposite to men as womanisers and Darwin’s meme.
The word meme originated with Richard Dawkins’ 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Dawkins cites as inspiration the work of geneticist L. L. Cavalli-Sforza, anthropologist F. T. Cloak [12] and ethologist J. M. Cullen.[13] Dawkins wrote that evolution depended not on the particular chemical basis of genetics, but only on the existence of a self-replicating unit of transmission—in the case of biological evolution, the gene. For Dawkins, the meme exemplified another self-replicating unit with potential significance in explaining human behavior and cultural evolution.
Concept
“Kilroy was here” was a piece of graffiti that became popular in the 1940s, and existed under various names in different countries, illustrating how a meme can be modified through replication.[14]Dawkins used the term to refer to any cultural entity that an observer might consider a replicator. He hypothesised that one could view many cultural entities as replicators, and pointed to melodies, fashions and learned skills as examples. Memes generally replicate through exposure to humans, who have evolved as efficient copiers of information and behaviour. Because humans do not always copy memes perfectly, and because they may refine, combine or otherwise modify them with other memes to create new memes, they can change over time. Dawkins likened the process by which memes survive and change through the evolution of culture to the natural selection of genes in biological evolution.[6]
Dawkins defined the meme as a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation and replication, but later definitions would vary. The lack of a consistent, rigorous, and precise understanding of what typically makes up one unit of cultural transmission remains a problem in debates about memetics.[15] In contrast, the concept of genetics gained concrete evidence with the discovery of the biological functions of DNA. Meme transmission does not necessarily require a physical medium, unlike genetic transmission.
Memetic lifecycle: Transmission, retention
Hence natural and sexual selection based not on genes but memes.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwQ-_g8KuHI[/youtube]
“Richard, Richard, Richard! Your preaching to the unconverted by which of course I mean the converted.”
lol
“I’ve seen a ghost, that was weird, do you believe in ghosts?”
“I hardly think religion is comparable to ghosts!”
“Damn: free lunch?”
“The free lunch delusion?”