A "memetic" (Bura 1994, Dennett 1995, Hales 1997) approach is applied to a resource sharing scenario. “Agents" are represented as cells on a grid applying simple cultural learning rules which selectively replicate and repel memes from neighbours. The memes represent culturally learned traits (Axelrod’s 1995) but also influence resource sharing behaviours. In the experiments presented, multiple ...

The "Machiavellian intelligence" hypothesis (or the "social brain" hypothesis) posits that large brains and distinctive cognitive abilities of humans have evolved via intense social competition in which social competitors developed increasingly sophisticated "Machiavellian" strategies as a means to achieve higher social and reproductive success. Here we build a mathematical model aiming to expl...

The subculture of humorous images is a pervasive phenomenon on the Internet. Some social media websites (e.g. 9GAG1, Reddit and 4chan) provide platforms for people to share their images and comments. These websites are often occupied by experienced users, and most of the newcomers have trouble fitting in such communities. Among all the types of humorous images, Internet memes are relatively har...

This research employed systems social science inquiry to build a synthesis model that would be useful for modeling meme evolution. First, a formal definition of memes was proposed that balanced both ontological adequacy and empirical observability. Based on this definition, a systems model for meme evolution was synthesized from Shannon Information Theory and elements of Bandura's Social Cognit...

Internet texts represent the most mobile and eclectic type of a text. Therefore, methodology their analysis is integrative polyparadigmatic; for adequate interpretation it required to consider them taking into account modern socio-cultural context presuppositional knowledge. The article devoted description meme-creating components associated with sociocultural in various forms memes: comics, de...

Conspiracy theories, or in general seriously distorted beliefs, are widespread. How and why are they formed in the brain is still more a matter of speculation rather than science. In this paper one plausible mechanisms is investigated: rapid freezing of high neuroplasticity (RFHN). Emotional arousal increases neuroplasticity and leads to creation of new pathways spreading neural activation. Usi...

The spreading of memes on the web played an important role in the emergence of Internet communities. The principal purpose of the study is to implement a simulation model to analyze the process of emergence of Internet communities. The model shows the importance of factors such as the interactions between online agents as well as their propensity to adopt and remember new memes. In addition, it...

Internet memes are a fundamental aspect of digital culture. Despite being individual expressions, they vastly transcend the level as windows into and vehicles for wide-stretching social, cultural, political narratives. Empirical research meme culture is thriving, yet particularly compartmentalized. In humanities social sciences, most efforts involve in-depth linguistic visual analyses mostly ha...

Multimemetic algorithms (MMAs) are memetic algorithms that explicitly exploit the evolution of memes, i.e., non-genetic expressions of problem-solving strategies. We consider a class of MMAs in which these memes are rewriting rules whose length can be fixed during the run of the algorithm or self-adapt during the search process. We analyze this self-adaptation in the context of spatially-struct...

How does network structure affect diffusion? Recent studies suggest that the answer depends on the type of contagion. Complex contagions, unlike infectious diseases (simple contagions), are affected by social reinforcement and homophily. Hence, the spread within highly clustered communities is enhanced, while diffusion across communities is hampered. A common hypothesis is that memes and behavi...