Memes as complex systems

Report on interaction task

Roger Bradbury

The history of the interaction task

July 2003 - Initial discussions at CABM meeting in Melbourne

August 2003 - Further discussion at CSS conference in Sydney, and proposal developed

August 2004 - Mini-workshop at CSS conference in Coffs Harbour

August 2004 - Major international workshop in Canberra, 13 - 17 August

Workshop objectives

Expose the complex systems researchers to the ideas of meme scientists (and vice versa)

Examine possible research questions (particularly in the areas of using complex systems tools to model memetic phenomena and the interaction between meme worlds and the human social worlds)

Propose a research agenda in the form of a ‘Grand Challenge’ manifesto.

Who we were

Memeticists and modellersSocial and natural scientistsTheoreticians and practitionersAll with a Darwinian bias

The team

Dave Batten

Sue Blackmore

Fabio Boschetti

Roger Bradbury

Shawn Callahan

Ian Enting

John Finnigan

Anne-Marie Grisogono

Steve Hatfield Dodds

Nicky Grigg

David Newth

Andrew Rixon

Rob Seymour

Angela Wardell-Johnson

Rachel Williams

What we did

A series of discussions on memes and complexity - from each side - led by different experts

A series of case studiesSome experimental modellingA drafting exercise for a Policy Forum

paper in Science

The discussions

Memes – conceptual issues and theory (Sue Blackmore)

Memes as real, Darwinian entities (Roger Bradbury)Complex systems – the state of the art (John Finnigan)Memes and emergence (Fabio Boschetti)Modelling strategies for complex systems (Ian Enting)Modelling memes as complex systems (David Newth

and Nicky Grigg)

The discussions (cont.)

Modelling evolutionary dynamics (Rob Seymour)Ecological principles and memes (Andrew Rixon)Policy development problems and memes (Steve

Hatfield Dodds)Memes and agents (Dave Batten)Memes and organizations (Rachel Williams and

Shawn Callahan)Memes and complexity – the view from sociology

(Angela Wardell-Johnson)

The case studies

Brainstormed 10, winnowed to 3Focus on public policy issues as

memesDevelopment aidWar on terrorWar on drugs

The modelling

From genes to memesWhat would memespace look like?How might memeplexes behave?Memes as a networkAre simple memes strong attractors?

The paper

‘Public policy, memes and complex systems’Policies are built from ideas, but ideas are memes

that, like genes, interact in complex ways with humans and their culture

Policy is constructed by and for often short-lived, often simple memes, each with their own selfish interests, within a complex framework of culture built by relatively longer-lived genes.

What changed?

Memes are realAs real as genes, information

Memes are differentDifferent labile dynamics to genesMemeplexes, simplicity

We can handle them with CSSNetworks surprisingly promising cf ABM

We can make strong new predictionsMore powerful than socio-biological explanations

Development aid

Memes encourage naïve interventionRegardless of the truth value of the meme

Aid continues — and will continue to fail — while ‘aid’ meme is satisfied

War on terror

Terrorism emerges from a new memeplex associating simple ‘killing’ memes with powerful ‘religion’ memes

The memeplex spreads from brain to brain in new ways — internet

Can be disrupted by selective pressureIndependently of ‘reforms’ such as

democratisation or market reforms

War on drugs

Drug policy creates harm out of all proportion to its cost

Because simple ‘drugs are bad’ meme reproduces well in all players

Change won’t come until we can encourage new memeplexes

There are some in memespace but far away