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Memeplex
This nOde last updated April 15th, 2002 and is permanently morphing...
(1 Caban (Quake) / 10 Pop (Mat) - 157/260 - 12.19.9.2.17)

Just as selfish genes group together for mutual protection, so whenever memes can propagate better as part of a group than on their own they form co-adapted meme complexes, or memeplexes. Memeplexes include languages, religions, scientific theories, political ideologies and belief systems such as acupuncture or astrology. Like memes, memeplexes spread as long there is some reason for them to be copied. Some are true or useful, others are copied despite being false.

These vast memeplexes, with their varied means of propagation, form the very stuff of our lives. Yet there is one memeplex, perhaps the most powerful of all, that we readily overlook. That is our own familiar self. Like other animals, we have a body image--a plan of our body used for organising sensations and planning skilled actions. We also have, as some other animals do, the ability to recognise other individuals and understand that they, too, have desires and plans. So far so good--but now we add the capacity to imitate, the  use of language and the word "I".

 - Susan Blackmore - _Meme, Myself And I_

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