Richard Dawkins and Memetics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins

Richard Dawkins coined the term meme in his book, The Selfish Gene.
He wrote the foreward for The Meme Machine. He is an ethologist and
outspoken atheist.

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/MEMES.html

This article describes memetics as "the theoretical and empirical
science that studies the replication, spread and evolution of memes".
The article lists Dawkins' three characteristics for a successful
replicator which are the following:

copying-fidelity: the more faithful the copy, the more will remain of
the initial pattern after several rounds of copying. If a painting is
reproduced by making photocopies from photocopies, the underlying
pattern will quickly become unrecognizable.

fecundity: the faster the rate of copying, the more the replicator
will spread. An industrial printing press can churn out many more
copies of a text than an office copying machine.

longevity: the longer any instance of the replicating pattern
survives, the more copies can be made of it. A drawing made by etching
lines in the sand is likely to be erased before anybody could have
photographed or otherwise reproduced it.