creators_name: Situngkir, Hokky type: preprint datestamp: 2004-03-06 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:55:29 metadata_visibility: show title: On Selfish Memes: culture as complex adaptive system subjects: bio-socio full_text_status: public keywords: meme, memetics, memeplex, cultural evolution, cultural unit, complex system. abstract: We present the formal definition of meme in the sense of the equivalence between memetics and the theory of cultural evolution. From the formal definition we find that culture can be seen analytically and persuade that memetic gives important role in the exploration of sociological theory, especially in the cultural studies. We show that we are not allowed to assume meme as smallest information unit in cultural evolution in general, but it is the smallest information we use on explaining cultural evolution. We construct a computational model and do simulation in advance presenting the selfish meme powerlaw distributed. The simulation result shows that the contagion of meme as well as cultural evolution is a complex adaptive system. Memetics is the system and art of importing genetics to social sciences. date: 2004 date_type: published refereed: TRUE referencetext: 1. Axelrod, R. (1997). “The Dissemination of Culture: A Model with Local Convergence and Global Polarization”. The Journal of Conflict Resolution 41(2):203-26. Sage Publications. 2. Bartholomew, D.J. (1982). Stochastic Models for Social Process. John Wiley & Sons. 3. Blackmore, S. (1998). “Imitation and Definition of a Meme”. Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, URL: http://jomemit.cfpm.org/1998/vol2/balckmore_s.html 4. Brodie, R. (1996). Viruses of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme. Integral Press. 5. Castro, L. & Toro, M.A. (2002). “Cultural Transmission and the Capacity to Approve or Disapprove of Offspring’s Behavior”. Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 6. URL: http://jomemit. cfpm.org/2002/vol6/castro_l&toro_ma.html 6. Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. (1986) “Cultural Evolution.” American Zoologist, 26, 845-855. 7. Dennett, D. (1995). Darwin's dangerous idea. Penguin. 8. Dawkins R. (1976, 1982). The selfish gene. Oxford University Press. 9. Dawkins, R. (1982). The Extended Phenotype. Oxford University Press. 10. Edmonds, B. (1999). Syntactic Measures of Complexity. PhD Thesis. Dept. Philosophy. University of Manchester. 11. Epstein, J.M., dan Axtell, R. (1996). Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science from the Bottom Up. The Brookings Institution Press dan MIT Press. 12. Geertz, C. (1973). The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books. 13. Gil-White, F. (2002). “Common misunderstandings of memes (and genes)”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences Online bbs00001244. URL: http://www.bbsonline.org/documents/a/00/00/12/44/bbs00001244-00/Memes2.htm 14. Hall, Stuart. (1980). Culture, Media, Language, Hutchinson. 15. Hebdige, D. (1987). Subculture: The Meaning of Style. Routledge. 16. Heylighen F. (1993): "Selection Criteria for the Evolution of Knowledge", Proceeding 13th International Congress on Cybernetics. International Association of Cybernetics. p. 524-528. 17. Heylighen, F. (2000). “Culture”. Principia Cybernetica Web. URL:http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/ASC/CULTURE.html 18. Kendal, J.R. & Laland, K.N. (2000). “Mathematical Models for Memetics”. Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 4. URL: http://jom-emit.cfpm.org/2000/vol4/kendal_jr&laland_kn.html 19. Lynch, A. (1998). “Units, Events and Dynamics in Memetic Evolution”. Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 2. URL: http://jomemit. cfpm.org/1998/vol2/lynch_a.html 20. Radcliffe, N.J. & Surry, P.D. (1994). “Formal Memetic Algorithm”. In Fogarty, T. (ed.). Evolutionary Computing. pp. 1-16. Springer-Verlag. 21. Sartika, T. D. (2004). Tracing Social Evolution through Memetics. Working Paper WPF2004. Bandung Fe Institute. URL: http://www.geocities.com/bandungfe/2004f.pdf 22. Situngkir, H. (2003). Cultural Studies through Complexity Sciences: Beyond Postmodern Culture without Postmodern Theorists. Working Paper WPM2003. Bandung Fe Institute. URL: http://www.geocities.com/bandungfe/cs.pdf 23. Stahovski, Nadejda (1999). “On Structural and Functional Status of Culture in the Social System”. Electronic Journal of Sociology: 4(3). URL: http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?100.4.3.4 24. Wilkins, J.S. (1998). “What’s in a Meme? Reflections from the perspective of the history and philosophy of evolutionary biology”. Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 2. URL: http://jomemit. cfpm.org/1998/vol2/wilkins_js.html citation: Situngkir, Hokky (2004) On Selfish Memes: culture as complex adaptive system. [Preprint] document_url: http://cogprints.org/3471/1/hokky.pdf