PSA: Dawkins on Radio 4 [when I posted]

[matgb]

BBC - Radio 4 - Word of Mouth

Talking about the origins and usage of memes.

ETA:It's finished, he was on for about 5 minutes at the beginning, and it's available on listen again. He got the word from the Greek word mymeme(sp?) apparently, and seemingly approves of the usage in quiz memes—it's become a meme in its own right, but thinks it might be a misuse. He even referred to the meme pool, but not seriously.

Apparently blue tits pecking milk bottles was a meme as well, how cool is that? The whole country was covered by this memetic epidemic...

Comments

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

WAH!

* prays for listen again *

[matgb]

It's there, and rather good it was as well.

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

* nodnod *

* is learning about Spanglish now :D

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Memes as a scientific term - ideas that spread "infectiously" like viruses - has been around for decades - I recall reading it in the 1980s (admittedly in, I think, Dawkins' the Selfish Gene).

I have always thought that memes (as in online quizzes) was a misuse.

[matgb]

It would've been Selfish Gene, it's the first recorded use of the word, he was being interviewed as a 'word creator'.

But yea—when I set up an LJ I tagged all the quizzes I did 'memes', but went back and retagged them when I reread the actual definition—I do think that some of the "post this" or "answer X questions" things are memes though, or close enough to be acceptably tagged as such. Common usage rules after all.