The Philosophy of Memes: Visualisations of Mental Representations

There is a thought in my head that lives like a ghost long wandering the halls of my Imagination. It's an idea of evolution through this almost alchemical transmutation of a meme. There are two main ways to define a meme. The First definition is about how quickly cultural ideas spread. Second is about funny pictures or videos that spread like wildfire on the internet.

In the past, it took a long time to share information. Before modern transportation, riding a horse was the fastest way to send a message. In order to make sure their messages were delivered quickly, leaders would even mark their horses so they could easily pass check points without being stopped.

Things had changed a lot by the turn of the last century. Before cars and planes, it still took a long time for messages to get from one place to another. But then the Internet came along and changed everything.

Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary scientist, first used the word "meme" in his book "The Selfish Gene" in 1976. In the book, Dawkins suggests that memes are similar to genes in that they are units of cultural knowledge that spread through natural selection. Memes are ideas, behaviors, styles, or practices that spread through imitation within a community.

Basically, they are pieces of cultural material that are passed from one person to another. They change and adapt, just like genes do in biology.

In the early days of the Internet, most Internet memes started as text jokes in small online communities. But as technology got better and sites like Facebook and Twitter came along, memes changed. They went from being jokes only a few people knew to being widely shared online. They captured humour, culture, and current events.

Memes aren't just for having fun online. They show what people value and can either support or challenge the norms of society. Memes are different from traditional media in that anyone can make them and they spread quickly. Memes capture the essence of the moment, while traditional media tries to make an impact that will last.

A Harvard study suggests that humor is a higher cognitive function of the brain. So, are we getting the most out of memes? Can we explain complicated ideas with just pictures and words? In his paper "Unifying the Mind: Cognitive Representations as Graphical Models," David Danks gives a unique point of view. He says that graphic models are like networks that link together different ideas. In many ways, a meme is like this model because it takes complicated ideas and makes them easier to understand.

Memes, like graphic models, change or challenge the way we think about ideas. This raises an interesting question: Can we use pictures and text to show deep ideas like spirituality, nihilism, utilitarianism or anything philosophical.

"The Scream" by Edvard Munch is a well-known painting. Even though it's a work of art, it captures the existential dread that many people feel, making it a kind of visual "meme" for existentialism. In the same way, modern memes can sum up philosophical ideas and act as a bridge between a casual observer and deeper philosophical thought.

Imagine for a minute that if Van Gogh could paint the meaning or an abstraction of the meaning with text. I'm going to make it my goal to make art that can bring abstractions to life. Can we collectively force an evolution of a meme to express a philosophical concept like that of a concise theoretical physics equation.

An equation of meaning if you will. Maybe this might require a philosophical notations like that in physics as well Is such an idealistic concept possible?