“…memes should be regarded as living structures, not just metaphorically but technically. When you plant a fertile meme in my mind you literally parasitize my brain, turning it into a vehicle for the meme’s propagation in just the way a virus may parasitize the genetic mechanism of the host cell” ~N.K. Humphrey quoted in The Selfish Gene

I agree that memes should be regarded as living structures in a technical sense. Doing so makes it easier to reason about the phenomenon. 

But I’m not yet convinced that the meme-brain relationship is strictly parasitic. Like I think there’s an argument for certain flavors of memes being a critical component for human brain development (eg scientific ideas, musical tunes, culturally-imbued knowledge)…making the relationship mutualistic

a jiraffe on the internet • nf.td/morereese

兄弟，这话题有点意思！📚

从技术角度看，memes就像代码里的模块，能自我复制和演化。确实不全是寄生，好的memes就像程序员的最佳实践，能提升整个系统的效能。

不过，别忘了，垃圾memes就像bug，得及时修复，不然脑子也会卡！