Behavior - why we do what we do

Reasoned by analogy, we present the theory of memes.  The modern theory of memetics (memes) is all about explaining why we behave as we do.  Based on a cultural analog of the biological gene, it has quite a large following among professional researchers – mostly in the social sciences. Let’s look at it more closely.  Warning: Be skeptical, knowing this is currently a big time theory. Yet no evidence and no observations!  For reason by analogy see http://used-ideas.blogspot.com/2012/07/rasoning-by-analogy.html

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The theory of memetics, or theory of memes, dating from the recent 1989 book, The Selfish Gene, by Richard Dawkins, proposes the rapid increase of social structure is a consequence of a culture or system (memes) of behaviors that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another.  They have been likened to biological genes.  In his 1998 book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, which elaborates upon the fundamental role of memes in unifying the natural and social sciences, E. O. Wilson notes Dawkins poses three conditions for evolution to occur.

1. Variation, or the introduction of new change to existing elements;
2. Heredity or replication, or the capacity to create copies of elements;
3. Differential "fitness", or the opportunity for one element to be more or less suited to the environment than another.

The upshot is that mankind exhibits a cultural evolution modeled on genetic evolution, with the passing of cultural traits onto or into others, though a process of replication. The meme is a way of discussing “a piece of thought conveyed from one person to another.”  Various authors have attributed to memes religion, architecture, hunting, idealism, and more.  In some cases, such as pack-hunting, the presence of memes is similar to what otherwise might be called programs, algorithms, or more precisely feedback-correcting algorithms.  Even though memes are passed between individuals, they are contained by or aspects of the culture itself.  Quantification of the meme themselves has long been the basic open problem of their existence.

Blackmore, Susan J. (1999), The meme machine, Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press (published 1999-04-08), p. 288, ISBN 0-19-850365-2 [trade paperback ISBN 0-9658817-8-4 (1999), ISBN 0-19-286212-X (2000)] on religion.

Just a portion of the many criticisms of memetics is that it ignores established advances in other fields of cultural study, such as sociology, cultural anthropology, cognitive psychology, and social psychology.  That aside, memes are fundamentally unprovable as no experiment or observations can be made to establish them, existentially or operationally.  However, note relativity was long understood and accepted before any observations proving it was established (orbit of Mercury). All the while it is used to explain what has no clear explanation.  However, it is an important and modern container to explain our current cultural state. 

See Benitez Bribiesca, Luis (January 2001), "Memetics: A dangerous idea" (PDF), Interciencia: Revista de Ciencia y Technologia de América, Venezuela: Asociación Interciencia, 26 (1): 29–31, ISSN 0378-1844, retrieved 2010-02-11. 

The critique is based on scientific principles but is somewhat polemic.  It is widely accepted because it is man-centered; we originate it and we promote it. Moreover, it distinguishes man from other animals – mostly. As well, it fits within our scope of understanding. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogs to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures. This theory has a remarkable following among practitioners in biology, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy. At best, it is a theory utilizing the logic of analogy.  It applies the familiar to the unknown and possibly unknowable. It conveys a model for understanding.   For a while memes may work, until they are discovered to be a consequence of sheer system complexity.  It happens because the society of man is a virtually undefinable, unquantifiable complex system. Yet, not within the close confines of mathematics, complexity is incredibly difficult to verify or identify as causation within any system.  Simpler explanations are always preferred.  Hence the meme. Practitioners of memes prefer belief over evidence, while claiming memes cause people to select religion as supporting belief over evidence.  

For a general review, please see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme