Term Definition

Active meme : A meme that is in a host and is significantly affecting its behaviour. Antonym:inactive meme.

Advertising : A form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common. Advertising is a primary application of memetics. Wikipedia has more details.

Animal culture : Describes the current theory of cultural learning in non-human animals through socially transmitted behaviors.Wikipedia has more details.

Anthropogeny : Anthropogeny is the study of human origins. Wikipedia has more details.

Anthropology : Anthropology play is the study of humanity. Historically, anthropology has mostly actively shunned memetics and cultural evolution - leaving the science stuck in a pre-Darwinian era. Wikipedia has more details.

Astroturfing : An artificial movement posing as a grassroots movement; e.g. something staged or faked that appears real; formally planned by an organization, but designed to mask its origins to create the impression of being spontaneous behavior). Wikipedia has more details.

Attention economy : The view that human attention is a scarce commodity - and that memes compete for the attention of their human hosts. Wikipedia has more details.

Audio : A popular type of content on the internet. Audible content. Wikipedia has more details.

Auto-toxic : Dangerous to itself. Highly auto-toxic memes are usually self-limiting because they promote the destruction of their hosts (such as military indoctrination memes and martyrdom memes). (See exo-toxic).

Bait : The attractive co-meme in a scheme that draws in the host, and gets it to adopt the meme. In some religions, "Salvation" is the bait, and "Spread the Word" is the hook.

Blackmore : Susan Blackmore. Author of The Meme Machine. Wikipedia has more details.

Belief-space : Since a person can only be infected with and transmit a finite number of memes, there is a limit to their belief-space. Memes evolve in competition for niches in the belief-space of individuals and societies.

Biotrophic memes : Memes that do not shorten host lifespan. See also Necrotrophic memes.

Brain : Concentrated nexus of computing elements in an organism.Wikipedia has more details.

Censorship : Any attempt to hinder the spread of a meme by eliminating its vectors. Hence, censorship is analogous to attempts to halt diseases by spraying insecticides. Censorship rarely kills off the target meme. In some cases, it may actually help to promote the meme's most virulent strain, while killing off milder forms. Wikipedia has more details.

Chain letter : A message that attempts to induce the recipient to make a number of copies of the letter and then pass them on to as many recipients as possible. Common methods used in chain letters include emotionally manipulative stories, get-rich-quick pyramid schemes, and the exploitation of superstition to threaten the recipient with bad luck, violence or even death if they 'break the chain' or refuses to adhere to the conditions set out in the letter. Wikipedia has more details. Dan Zarella has more details.

Co-meme : A meme which has symbiotically co-evolved with other memes, to form a mutually-assisting memeplex. The types of co-memes commonly found in a scheme are called the: bait; hook; threat; and vaccime. The term is from Hofstadter.

Computer worm : A small mobile agent that can reproduce in virtual environmets without much assistance. Wikipedia has more details. Wikipedia has more details.

Computer virus : A small infectious agent that can only replicate with the assistance of another organism, its host. Viruses live inside their host. They can have lifecycles that involve more than one type of host. See also virus. Wikipedia has more details.

Contagious : Easily spread from one host to another. Wikipedia has more details.

Contagiousness : A measure of how easily an infection spreads from one host to another.

Copy : A duplicated version of something. The result of copying. Also a verb referring to copying. Wikipedia has more details.

Copying : The duplication of information or an artifact based on an instance of it. The act of making a copy. Wikipedia has more details.

Copypasta : A bastardization of copy-paste. When used as an image macro, it is often accompanied by a picture of spaghetti.

Cover : A derivative production, usually inferior to the original. Usually created to attract attention via memetic hitchhiking. Also cover version.

Cult : A sociotype of an auto-toxic memeplex, composed of membots and/or memeoids. Cults often exhibit brainwashing, isolation, proselytizing and leader-worship ("personality cult"). Wikipedia has more details.

Culture : Inherited patterns of knowledge and behavior that are transmitted down the generations using brains - rather than nucleic acids. Wikipedia has more details.

Cultural anthropology : Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. Historically, cultural anthropology has focussed almost entirely on field work and gathering data - so it is not really a proper science of human culture. It has the same anti-theoretical bias as is found in history - where practitioners often behave as though they think that theory will give them undesirable preconceptions that blind them to the actual data.Wikipedia has more details.

Cultural ecology : Studies the relationship between a given society and its natural environment, its life-forms and ecosystems.Wikipedia has more details.

Cultural_learning : Cultural learning, also called cultural transmission, is the way a group of people or animals within a society or culture tend to learn and pass on new information.Wikipedia has more details.

Cultural selection theory : Memetics variant which explicitly embraces non-discrete inheritance, working from the dubious premise that memetics necessarily insists on discrete inheritance, and so is in need of extending. Wikipedia has more details.

Cultural pandemic : A memeplex that goes global and becomes carried by very large numbers of people. Wikipedia has more details.

Culturomics : The application of high-throughput data collection and analysis to the study of human culture. Word according to Google.

Cyberspace : The virtual side of the internet. Where most memes live. Environment constructed by memes to reduce their dependence on human hosts in meatspace.

Darwin : Charles Darwin. Originator of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Wikipedia has more details.

Dawkins : Richard Dawkins. Christened the meme in his book The Selfish Gene. Wikipedia has more details.

Dennett : Daniel Dennett. Author of Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Wikipedia has more details.

Derivative : A term to denote any variants of a work that are inspired by or created from parts of it. Literally, it’s a thing that is derived from another thing. See also: derivative work, remix, mashup, exploitable and parody.

Derivative work : An expressive creation that includes major, copyright-protected elements of an original, previously created first work. The term derives from United States copyright law. Wikipedia has more details.

Dual inheritance theory : This is Boyd and Richerson's term for their version of memetics. The 'dual inheritance' of the title refers to DNA and culture. It covers the same territory as memetics, but has a different lineage - arising out of attempts to adapt population genetics to human culture. Wikipedia has more details.

Earworm : A tune or melody which infects a population rapidly. A hit song. (Such as: "Don't Worry, Be Happy".) (from German, ohrwurm=earworm.) Wikipedia has more details.

Epidemic : An infectious agent that spreads rapidly, affecting large numbers of hosts. Wikipedia has more details.

Epidemic threshold : A threshold above which agents can spread explosively and cause epidemics. Usually expressed in terms of the ratio between birth rate and death rate. Tim Tyler has more details.

Evolution : The main theory of how biological complexity arises from natural processes via copying, mutation and selection. Discovered by Darwin and published in Darwin (1859). Wikipedia has more details.

Evolutionary : Conceptually connected with Evolution.

Evolutionary anthropology : Evolutionary anthropology is the interdisciplinary study of evolution of human physiology and human behaviour and the relation between hominids and non-hominid primates. Wikipedia has more details.

Evolutionary computation : The study of evolving computer data and programs. Wikipedia has more details.

Exo-toxic : Dangerous to others. Highly exo-toxic memes promote the destruction of persons other than their hosts, particularly those who are carriers of rival memes. (Such as: Nazism, the Inquisition, Pol Pot.) (See meme-allergy)

Exploitable : Refers to a type of image that is prime for editing in many different ways. Generally, there will be one element of an image that can be tweaked, or captions may be added. Know Your Meme has more details.

Failed meme : Not all memes make it in the real world. Those that don't are often referred to as being 'failed memes'.

Family Guy effect : When a meme becomes so popular it is parodied by mainstream media. When this happens, the reputation of the meme is sometimes tarnished among its fans. However, such memes often show a resurgence in popularity for the meme soon after the mainstream mention.

Fecundity : Having lots of offspring. One of the big three meme properties (longevity, fidelity, fecundity).

Fidelity : Producing high-quality unmutated copies. One of the big three meme properties (longevity, fidelity, fecundity).

Flaming : Making inflammatory, abusive or directly offensive comments. This is differentiated from a trolling, which is more oriented around provoking responses. Wikipedia has more details.

Forced Meme : A planned attempt to make a meme. Forced Memes are often unsuccessful. Know Your Meme has more details.

Free riding : Free riding genes are near-neutral genes that don't serve much of a useful purpose - and are just along for the ride. They differ from junk DNA - since they are expressed. Similarly, free riding memes are near-neutral memes that are just along for the ride.

Global brain : The idea that the internet behaves rather like a giant planetary-scale brain.

Godwin’s Law : A behavioral observation stating that the longer a Usenet conversation is, the more likely Nazis are to be mentioned, ending the conversation. It is now applied to all forums. Wikipedia has more details.

Goliath effect : An infection strategy common to many memeplexes, placing the potential host in the role of victim and playing on their insecurity, as in: "the bourgeoisie is oppressing the proletariat". Dan Zarella has more details.

Grassroots : A word to describe a movement or meme created or “grown” by regular people or users; not coporate companies or large organizations. These memes are the kinds that start out small and grow from person to person, rather than a singular massive exposure. Wikipedia has more details.

Herd behavior : Herd behavior describes how individuals in a group can act together without central planning. Copying each other's actions is often involved. See also: sheeple, information+cascade Wikipedia has more details.

Henson : Keith Henson. Coined the term memeoid. Henson's wife coined the term memetics. Wikipedia has more details.

Hofstadter : Douglas Hofstadter. Author of Metamagical Themas. Wikipedia has more details.

Hook : After a host has been located using the bait, the hook is the co-meme that then results in replication of the meme. The term is from Hofstadter.

Host : A person who has been successfully infected by a meme. See also: infection, membot, memeoid.

Human behavioral ecology : Applies evolutionary theory and optimization theory to the study of human behavioral and cultural diversity. It typically studies how changes in the surrounding ecosystem affect human culture and behaviour. This is mostly a pre-memetic discipline that doesn't attempt to deal with human culture evolving.Wikipedia has more details.

Idea : A thought. The conscious contents of a mind when it engages in thinking. Wikipedia has more details.

Ideavirus : Seth Godin's term for a meme.

Ideosphere : The realm of memetic evolution, as the biosphere is the realm of biological evolution. The entire memetic ecology. Wikipedia has more details.

Image : A popular type of content on the internet. A visual representation. Wikipedia has more details.

Image macro : An image captioned with superimposed text for humourous effect. A image with no caption is often called an exploitable. Wikipedia has more details.

Immunosuppressant : Anything that tends to reduce a person's memetic immunity. Common immunosuppressant include: travel, disorientation, exhaustion, insecurity, shock, loss, isolation, stress, drugs, loneliness, alienation, paranoia and hypnosis. Recruiters for cults often target airports and bus terminals because travelers are likely to have depressed memetic immunity.

Inactive meme : A meme that is in a host and is not significantly affecting its behaviour. Antonym:active meme. Synonym: dormant meme.

Infection : Successful encoding of a meme in the memory of its host. A memetic infection can be either active or inactive. It is inactive if the host does not feel inclined to transmit the meme to other people. An active infection causes the host to want to infect others. Fanatically active hosts are often membots or memeoids. A person who is exposed to a meme but who does not remember it (consciously or otherwise) is not infected. (A host can indeed be unconsciously infected, and even transmit a meme without conscious awareness of the fact. Many societal norms are transmitted this way.) Wikipedia has more details.

Infection strategy : Any memetic strategy which encourages infection of a host. Jokes encourage infection by being humorous, tunes by evoking various emotions, slogans and catch-phrases by being terse and continuously repeated. Common infection strategies include: Goliath effect, Fear of Death, and Sense of Community. In a memeplex, the bait co-meme is often central to the infection strategy.

Information cascade : An information cascade occurs when people observe the actions of others and then make the same choice that the others have made, independently of other factors. Wikipedia has more details.

Intercranial memetics : Subfield of memetics that deals with the dynamics of memes between minds. This covers interactions between memes and their environment while the memes are not inside minds. See also intracranial memetics. Tim Tyler has more details.

Internet : An international network of computers that forms a new, electronic home memes have constructed for themselves, as part of a strategy of liberatting themselves from the confines of the human brain.

Intracranial memetics : Subfield of memetics that deals with the dynamics of memes inside a single mind. Memes compete with other memes inside minds. Intracranial memetics studies these dynamics - and other forces on memes while they are inside minds. Note that intracranial memetics also deals with protomemes failed+memes and other ideas that may never go on to become memes. See also intercranial memetics. Tim Tyler has more details.

Lemming : A member of a crowd with no originality or voice of his own. One who speaks or repeats only what he has been told. Named after the urban legend that lemmings will jump over cliffs if another lemming does so first. Urban Dictionary has more details.

Longevity : Having a long life. One of the big three meme properties (longevity, fidelity, fecundity).

Marketing : The activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. Marketing is a primary application of memetics. Wikipedia has more details.

Mashup : Media content containing recombined text, images, audio or video drawn from pre-existing sources, to create a new derived work. Wikipedia has more details.

Meatspace : Where memes lived before they colonised cyberspace. The land of human brains.

Media : Media (singular medium) are the storage and transmission channels or tools used to store and deliver information or data. Also an abbreviated form of mass media or news media. Wikipedia has more details.

Membot : A person whose entire life has become subordinated to the propagation of a meme (such as many Jehovah's witnesses, Krishna devotees, and scientologists.) Due to internal competition, the most vocal and extreme membots tend to rise to top of their organisation's hierarchy. A self-destructive membot is a memeoid.

Meme : (pron. 'meem') A contagious information pattern that replicates by symbiotically infecting host minds and altering their behavior, causing them to propagate the pattern. (Term coined by Dawkins (1976), by analogy with "gene".) Examples of memes include slogans, words, catch-phrases, melodies, icons, inventions, logos and fashions. An idea or information pattern is not a meme until it causes someone to replicate it, to repeat it to someone else. All cultural knowledge is memetic. Wikipedia has more details.

Memes : Plural of meme.

Meme allergy : A form of intolerance; a condition which causes a person to react in an unusually negative manner when exposed to a specific semiotic stimulus, or `meme-allergen.' Exo-toxic memeplexes typically confer dangerous meme-allergies on their hosts. Often, the actual meme-allergens need not be present, but merely perceived to be present, to trigger a reaction. Common meme-allergies include racism, sexism and homophobia and pornophobia. Common forms of meme-allergic reaction are censorship, vandalism, belligerent verbal abuse, and physical violence.

Meme entry : The penetration of the host's immune system by the meme. Techniques used to do this include Trojan horses, injection and suggestion. By analogy with virus entry. Tim Tyler has more details.

Meme expression : Activity by a meme in a host. By analogy with gene expression.

Meme flow : In population memetics, meme flow is the transfer of memes from one organic population to another - or from one cultural population to another. By analogy with gene flow.

Meme freak : Meme enthusiast who constantly posts memes, references memes in meatspace or tries to explain memes to others.

Meme instance : A term to denote any specific instance of a meme. For example, a popular quotes are not described as catchphrases until they have a large number of repeated instances. The cultural equivalent of an allele.

Meme pool : The full diversity of memes accessible to a culture or individual. Learning languages and traveling are methods of expanding one's meme pool.

Meme shedding : Sometimes hosts shed copies of their memes liberally into their environment. By analogy with virus shedding.

Meme transmission : Refers to transport of memes from host to host and from place to place. By analogy with virus transmission.

Meme's eye view : Taking the perspective of the gene on evolution. As opposed to considering the situation from the perspective of the individual, group, or species. World in Common has more details.

Memealogy : The study of cultural ancestry. The cultural equivalent of an genealogy. Tim Tyler has more details.

Memebot : A term which is used to describe someone who persistently and obviously attempts to replicate a particular meme. Etymology is a combination of "meme" and "bot".

Memeing : The act of referencing, using or transmitting a meme.

Memejacking : The term "memejacking" refers to using a meme to hijack another meme. Tim Tyler has more details.

Memeplex : A set of mutually-assisting memes which have co-evolved a symbiotic relationship. Religious and political dogmas, social movements, artistic styles, traditions and customs, chain letters, paradigms, languages, etc. are memeplexes. Similar terms include meme complex, and scheme. Wikipedia has more details.

Memer : Someone who makes considerable use of memes.

Memespeak : Using meme talk IRL, for example greeting someone with "Yo-Dawg! El-oh-el!" Also, the childish language of many memes - especially image macros - e.g. "Im in yr couch steelin yr change!", "y u b h8tn?" and "Shoop Da Woop Imma firin Mah Lazer" Urban Dictionary has more details.See also lolspeak.

Memetic algorithms : These represent one of the recent growing areas of research in evolutionary computation. The term M.A. is now widely used to describe combinations of evolutionary or any population-based approach with separate individual learning procedures to solve optimisation problems. Wikipedia has more details.

Memetic drift : Memetic change as a result of random changes - as opposed to selection. By analogy with genetic drift.

Memetic engineering : One who consciously devises memes, through meme-splicing and memetic synthesis, with the intent of altering the behavior of others. Writers of manifestos and of commercials are typical memetic engineers. Wikipedia has more details.

Memetic junk : Memes that don't have any significant effect - aside from the metabolic costs associated with their reproduction. By analogy with Junk DNA.

Memetic hijacking : The process of a meme becoming active in a host - and overriding the influence of its DNA-genes. Named after the hijacking of vehicles - where an agent who is not supposed to be in charge siezes control. Sometimes referred to as 'mind hijacking'. If taken to extremes can produce a memeoid.

Memetic immunity : Resistance to memetic infections. Memetic immunity can arise from education, reading, scepticism, faith. The freedom to learn about all sorts of ideas, compare them as you will and choose for yourself which to believe also helps.

Memeticist : One who studies memetics.

Memetics : The study of memes and their social effects. Wikipedia has more details.

Memetracker : A tool for studying the migration of memes. Memetrackers are usually internet based sites.Wikipedia has more details.

Memeoid : A person "whose behavior is so strongly influenced by a meme that their own survival becomes inconsequential in their own minds. (Henson) Examples include: Kamikazes, Shiite terrorists, suicide bombers). Sometimes written as 'memoid'. Memeoids were probably named after parasitoids. Parasitoids are parasites that kill their hosts. It seems that strictly, the term 'memeoid' should probably refer to necrotrophic memes themselves.

Memotype : A collection of memes that are transmitted together as a unit - by analogy with genotype. This term is sometimes used to refer to all the memes in a human - but this usage seems undesirable.

Memome : The set of all memes of a cultural symbiont. This term is sometimes used to refer to all the memes in a human - but this usage seems undesirable.

Military memetics : An interest of the military, aimed at countering terrorism and preventing irrational conflicts by promoting rational solutions to national and international problems. See also propaganda.

Mimic : Something that copies the form of something else. Wikipedia has more details.

Mimicry : The act of copying the form of something else. Wikipedia has more details.

Motivational poster : A motivational poster (or inspirational poster) is a type of poster commonly designed for use in schools and offices. Motivational posters are often parodied on the internet and used as a form of image macro.Wikipedia has more details.

Mutation : A memetic change in which an existing meme takes on a slightly different form. For example, when a popular catchphrase has clearly evolved into an image macro series, it can be said a significant mutation has occurred. Wikipedia has more details.

Mutex : Abbreviation for mutually exclusive. Mutex memes are ones that do not coexist peacefully in the same host. For example, Christianity and Islam are mutex memeplexes.

Necrotrophic memes : Memes that shorten host lifespan. See also biotrophic memes.

Ontomemy : Cultural evolution exhibits developmental processes too - mirroring Ontogeny. Baking a cake is a simple example of a cultural developmental process. Tim Tyler has more details.

Parody : A type of derivative in which participants imitate something for humorous effect. Common objects of parody arise from pop culture and politics.Wikipedia has more details.

Payload : Deliverable cargo. Often something that is desired to be spread which is attached to a meme, and then spread via memetic hitchhiking. Wikipedia has more details. Tim Tyler has more details.

Persistent meme infection : A meme infection that does not go away. By analogy with persistent viral infections.

Phemotype : The expressed form of a memotype, as the body of an organism is the physical expression (phenotype) of the gene (genotype). Close synonym of sociotype.

Phylomemy : The study of historical relatedness in the cultural realm. The cultural version of phylogeny.

Phylomemetic trees : These are tree diagrams that illustrate historical evolutionary relationships between cultural entities.

Phylomemetics : The study of historical evolutionary relationships between cultural entities. There's also the idea of a phylomemetic tree. By analogy with phylogenetics.

Population memetics : Population memetics is the study of the frequency memes occur with, and how this changes under the influence of natural selection, memetic drift, mutation and meme flow. By analogy with Population genetics.

Propaganda : A form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself. Wikipedia has more details. See also military memetics.

Protomeme : Protomeme is an abbreviation of prototype meme. It refers to a meme which is under construction. Tim Tyler has more details.

Remix : A type of derivative created by using parts of more than one source material. This is typically observed in all sorts of user-generated content, including cross-meme combos in video mashups and image macros.Wikipedia has more details.

Remix culture : Remix culture is a term used to describe a society which allows and encourages derivative works. Wikipedia has more details.

Replicator : Term used by Dawkins to describe anything of which copies are made. Note the difference between this usage and the dictionary.

Replication strategy : Any memetic strategy used by a meme to encourage its host to repeat the meme to other people. The hook co-meme of a scheme.

Retromeme : A meme which attempts to splice itself into an existing meme or memeplex The combination may then become linked and spread via memetic hitchhiking. Catchphrases are an example.

Sauce : Slang for “source”, often used when the poster wants moar of what was posted. Originated when m00t (the founder of 4chan) filtered “source” to show up as “sauce”.

Scheme : A memeplex containing linked elements that help each other to propagate. Often contains a bait or threat, a hook and sometimes a vaccime - to hinder competing infections. Term comes from Hofstadter.

Search magnet : Co-meme which is effective at attracting the attention of those searching. Usually - but not always - the prime function of that co-meme.

Selfish meme : Selfish meme theory holds that cultural evolution occurs through a process involving differential survival of competing memes. By analogy with the concept of the selfish gene.

Seinfeld Effect : A term used for when a meme is believed to have begun from certain mainstream media when, in fact, it did not. It was only referencing the already existing meme. Know Your Meme has more details.

Semiotics : Semiotics is the study of signs, sign processes, indication, designation as used in communication. Wikipedia has more details.

Sharing : The joint use of resources: space, time, matter or information. Wikipedia has more details.

Shareable : a measure of how likely something is to be shared: e.g.: 'some content is very shareable'. Also, something capable of being shared, or likely to be shared.

Sheeple : Sheeple (a portmanteau of sheep and people) is a term of disparagement, in which people are likened to sheep - due to habitually copying each other's behaviour and following each other around. Wikipedia has more details.

Sneezability : Seth Godin's term for contagiousness.

Snowclone : An easily-recognised template phrase that can be used in a range of different versions by substiting keywords into the template. 'Grey is the new black', is a version of the template 'X is the new Y'. Frequently-used concept in image macros. Wikipedia has more details.

Social learning : Deals with how animals transmit information to each other. Includes imitation and other forms of social learning. Social learning facilitates cultural transmission. Wikipedia has more details.

Sociotype : The social expression of a memotype, as the body of an organism is the physical expression (phenotype) of the gene (genotype). Hence, the Protestant Church is one sociotype of the Bible's memotype.

Sub-meme : A derivative meme, usually inferior to the original. Usually created to attract attention via memetic hitchhiking.

Subvertising : A meme hack usually to an advertisement that subverts its message. Wikipedia has more details.

Spam : Unsolicited Electronic messages sent in bulk indiscriminately. Wikipedia has more details.

Spin-off : A derivative that has grown out of an existing meme, which contain explicit references to the original content.

Spread : The range of locations where a specific meme can be found.

Streisand Effect : When an attempt to censor or hide something from the general public results in its unexpected/sudden rise in popularity. Wikipedia has more details.

Symbiosis : The living together of unlike organisms. Wikipedia has more details.

Text : A popular type of content on the internet. Contains written language. Wikipedia has more details.

Teme : Blackmore's proposed term for a techno-meme - a meme that replicates using technological means - rather than human brains. Wikipedia has more details.

Thought contagion : Aaron Lynch's proposed term for meme.

Threadjacking : The act of stealing a thread via a topic change and is often done unintentionally. When done intentionally, it can be considered trolling.

Threat : The part of a memeplex that encourages adherence and discourages mis-replication. ("Damnation to Hell" is the threat co-meme in many religious schemes.) See also: bait, hook, vaccime.

Tipping point : Critical threshold beyond which a meme starts to spread rapidly. Can be caused by mutation, hitchhiking, recombination, etc. Tim Tyler has more details.

Tolerance : A meta-meme which allows for the peaceful coexistence of a wide variety of memes (and their sociotypes). In its purest form, tolerance allows its host to be repeatedly exposed to rival memes, without active infection and without resulting in a meme allergy reaction. Tolerance is a central co-meme in a wide variety of schemes, particularly "liberalism", and "democracy".

Trojan : Abbreviation of Trojan Horse. Refers to a technique for bypassing host immune systems by being taken inside a defensive perimeter, into a trusted zone. Wikipedia has more details.

Troll : Refers to a person who posts inflammatory, rude, or insulting posts on a forum for the purpose of creating controversy, or provoking replies. Wikipedia has more details.

Universal Darwinism : This refers to a variety of approaches that extend the theory of Darwinism beyond its original domain of organic, biological evolution. The idea is to formulate a generalized version of the mechanisms of variation, selection and inheritance proposed by Darwin, so that they can be applied to explain evolution in a wide variety of other domains - including psychology, economics, culture, medicine, computer science and physics. Universal Darwinism is also sometimes known as Generalized Darwinism or Universal Selection Theory. Wikipedia has more details.

Universal selection : The idea that natural selection is a universal principle, that governs everything that comes into existence. Tim Tyler has more details.

Vector : A medium, method, or vehicle for the transmission of memes. Almost any communication medium can be a memetic vector.

Urban legend : A form of modern folklore consisting of stories usually believed by their tellers to be true. The designation suggests nothing about the story's veracity, but merely that it is in circulation, exhibits variation over time, and carries elements that promote its preservation and propagation. Wikipedia has more details. Dan Zarella has more details.

Vaccime : Cultural vaccine, by analogy with Vaccine. Any metameme which confers memetic immunity to one or more memes, allowing that person to be exposed without acquiring an active infection. Also called an immuno-meme. Common immunity-conferring memes are "faith", "skepticism" and "tolerance". Some consider vaccime to be unnecessary jargon.

Vector : An entity that transports or carries memes. Usage derived from epidemiology. Wikipedia has more details.

Video : A popular type of content on the internet. Moving pictures. Wikipedia has more details.

Viral : Exhibiting the contagion pattern of a virus. Wikipedia has more details.

Viral license : A license with conditions that help to promote a viral pattern of contagion - for example by insisting that any kind of derived work carries a copy of the license. Wikipedia has more details.

Virus : A small infectious agent that can only replicate with the assistance of another organism, its host. Viruses live inside their host. They can have lifecycles that involve more than one type of host. See also computer virus. Wikipedia has more details.