Success factors for simple memes

Now that we have a four-stage model of meme transmission and understand the mathematics from the meme’s point of view, we can concentrate on what it is about memes that makes them easy to assimilate, retain, express and transmit. Although there has been little if any experimental work done in this area, we can again build on the work of cyberneticist Francis Heylighen and an understanding of how the brain works, and divide the brain’s filters up into four groups:

Objective Criteria

Distinctive: Will we notice this meme? Does it stand out from the thousands of other memes we are exposed to in a day?
Repeated: Have we been exposed to this idea before? Is there a partial pathway in the brain that we can build on?
Interactive: Does the meme invoke playful behaviours if we examine it more closely, or does it just sit there without invoking our monkey curiosity?

Subjective Criteria

Simplicity: Is the meme simple enough to assimilate and remember?
Coherence: Is the new meme supported by our existing memes or inconsistent with them?
Novelty: Does it stand out from the crowd?
Useful: Could this be useful to us, or those we care about?

Group Criteria

Authoritative: Does this meme come to us from a high-status member of the group or someone we trust/love?
Clear: Is the meme expressed in a language I share with the person transmitting it, and expressed in terms of symbols we both recognise?
Conforming: Is this accepted by a group I am (or want to be) part of?
Expressible: Is this something I want to send on? If I transmit this meme, will be benefit both sender and receiver?
Packagable: Is this an idea that can be wrapped up in terms that the group can accept, and that they are likely to want to accept?

Memeplex Criteria

Self-consistency Is this memeplex internally consistent (as opposed to being self-contradictory)?
Self-reinforcing Is there a feedback loop by which the memeplex reinforces itself, through means such as repetition, meditation, prayer etc?
Intolerant Does this memeplex strengthen its hold on our brains by blocking or forcing out other beliefs?
Evangelism: This memeplex contain factors which make us want to go out and spread it?

Now let’s map these criteria for success against the stages of the meme’s lifecycle in the following diagram, again adapted from Heyligen’s work:


filters_lifecycle







Bypassing the filters