Categories are not invariant. This paper attempts to explore the dynamic nature of semantic category, in particular, that of fashion language, based on the cognitive theory of Dawkins’ memetics, a new theory of cultural evolution. Semantic attributes of linguistic memes decrease or proliferate in replication and spreading, which involves a dynamic development of semantic category. More specific...

Providing information can be expanded to include systems that deliver information-like artifacts. They provide such “things” as advertisements, propaganda pieces, and meme artifacts. Memes are the subject of extensive intellectual debate in science and popular culture because it is claimed that parallels can be drawn between theories of cultural evolution manifested in memes, and theories of bi...

One of the fastest growing areas of evolutionary algorithm research is the enhancement of genetic algorithms by combination with local search methods or memes: often known otherwise as memetic algorithms. However there is often little theoretical basis on which to characterize the choice of memes that lead to successful memetic algorithm performance. In this paper, we investigate empirically th...

Internet memes are a pervasive phenomenon on the social Web. They typically consist of viral catch phrases, images, or videos that spread through instant messaging, (micro) blogs, forums, and social networking sites. Due to their popularity and proliferation, Internet memes attract interest in areas as diverse as marketing, sociology, or computer science and have been dubbed a new form of commu...

Memes are the fundamental unit of cultural evolution and have been left upon the periphery of cognitive neuroscience due to their inexact definition and the consequent presumption that they are impossible to measure. Here it is argued that although a precise definition of memes is rather difficult it does not preclude highly controlled experiments studying the neural substrates of their initiat...

Goatse is a blockchain-based incentivized voting system that supports the generation of dank memes. It implements cryptocurrency-based incentivisation for meme originators, with a primary goal of allowing the internet’s talented meme artists to achieve recognition and reward for their memetic work. Prioritisation of fresh memes is achieved through community based algorithms, which reward users ...

The advent of social media has provided data and insights about how people relate to information and culture. While information is composed by bits and its fundamental building bricks are relatively well understood, the same cannot be said for culture. The fundamental cultural unit has been defined as a “meme”. Memes are defined in literature as specific fundamental cultural traits, that are fl...

Multimemetic algorithms (MMAs) are a subclass of memetic algorithms in which memes are explicitly attached to genotypes and evolve alongside them. We analyze the propagation of memes in MMAs with a spatial structure. For this purpose we propose an idealized selecto-Lamarckian model that only features selection and local improvement, and study under which conditions good, high-potential memes ca...

Every day we are exposed to different ideas, or memes, competing with each other for our attention. Previous research explained popularity and persistence heterogeneity of memes by assuming them in competition for limited attention resources, distributed in a heterogeneous social network. Little has been said about what characteristics make a specific meme more likely to be successful. We propo...

We examined the influence of meme consistency (vs. inconsistency) and intragroup status on the spread of memes in virtual communities. Prior research suggests that information consistent with the theme of the group is remembered better and that ideas threatening to the group identity are rejected. In addition, previous research shows that low-status group members mimic high-status members and c...