Some broad musings about genes and memes:
Genes seek to replicate themselves - for over 3.5 billion years - and now there are 3-100 million species on earth (see, for example, "The Encyclopedia of Life," at eol.org).
A meme, as a 'replicating cultural unit' (my definition), is a word Richard Dawkins coined in his book "The Selfish Gene" (1976) to characterize sociocultural phenomena that aren't genetic, - so the sociocultural side of life (in my interpretation). "Richard Dawkins initially defined meme as a noun that "conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation"[6]" (from this Wikipedia entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme#Concept). Dawkins gave the examples of a novel, or a summer dress, as memes.
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Sociocultural Anthropology, in my reading, hasn't engaged the concept of meme, significantly, whatsoever.
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And memes (like genes) can be both arbitrary and, at the same time, so significant for individuals, or human bodyminds here.
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In the context of this genetic-memetic broad view, and in this complex world of modernity, globalization and the information age - and with nontheistically F/friendly inclinations - I'm curious about cultivating memes that have historically made the world a better place, and especially the 'conversation' meme.
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I see conversations (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Conservation) in many spheres of life, including in this WUaS, wiki subject, for example, facilitating a conversation about an
Ocean and Climate Management Plan
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Ocean_%26_Climate_Management_Plan.
In 'real world' senses,
the Nation State
(http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Nation_States),
Law
(http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Law),
the United Nations
(http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/United_Nations),
and the Internet
(http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Internet_Studies),
all Languages (7,105+)
(http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Languages), as well as, especially,
Language
(http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Language), for example,
are all fascinating memes worth cultivating, and learning about, to help contribute to a better world, in my view.
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And I see the remarkable possibilities for conversation {STEM-centric} especially in a conversation involving online MIT OCW-centric, university degrees in some languages and countries at WUaS, and as wiki schools in all languages and countries.
See, in English, so far, for example, - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects - and where it's possible for you or anyone to wiki-create new subjects, and eventually in all languages and countries.
Wikipedia, by way of comparison, is in 285 languages, and we all wrote it.
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But I also appreciate the conversation, and related flourishings, that emerge in music,
{hence the all-languages, all-instruments' wiki
Music School at WUaS -
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Music_School} -
and, for me, which also emerge when I, for example, listen to the
Grateful Dead
{http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/grateful_Dead}, or
Raga
{http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Raga} music, but in many, musical spheres.
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That we can GENERATE such musical conversations, when and as we want, which then lead to flourishing are remarkably fascinating memes, in my experience.
These memes of musical conversation seem metaphorically worth exploring the significance of, and in a variety of ways, internationally, too, as ways of generating connecting and understanding and caring between peoples.
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And the species of the earth continue to replicate themselves, in what's a very old process, which somehow seems worth celebrating, as a different kind of genetic, conversational meme.
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