--- abstract: 'This paper describes a computational model of how ideas, or memes, evolve through the processes of variation, selection, and replication. Every iteration, each neural-network based agent in an artificial society has the opportunity to acquire a new meme, either through 1) INNOVATION, by mutating a previously-learned meme, or 2) IMITATION, by copying a meme performed by a neighbor. Imitation, mental simulation, and using past experience to bias mutation all increase the rate at which fitter memes evolve. Memes at epistatic loci converged more slowly than memes at over- or underdominant loci. The higher the ratio of innovation to imitation, the greater the meme diversity, and the higher the fitness of the fittest meme. Optimization is fastest for the society as a whole with an innovation to imitation ratio of 2:1, but diversity is comprimized.' altloc: - http://www.vub.ac.be/CLEA/liane/MAV/mav.htm chapter: ~ commentary: ~ commref: ~ confdates: ~ conference: ~ confloc: ~ contact_email: ~ creators_id: [] creators_name: - family: Gabora given: L. honourific: '' lineage: '' date: 1995 date_type: published datestamp: 1999-01-22 department: ~ dir: disk0/00/00/05/31 edit_lock_since: ~ edit_lock_until: ~ edit_lock_user: ~ editors_id: [] editors_name: - family: Nadel given: Lynn honourific: '' lineage: '' - family: Stein given: Daniel L. honourific: '' lineage: '' eprint_status: archive eprintid: 531 fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/531/1/mav.htm full_text_status: public importid: ~ institution: ~ isbn: ~ ispublished: pub issn: ~ item_issues_comment: [] item_issues_count: 0 item_issues_description: [] item_issues_id: [] item_issues_reported_by: [] item_issues_resolved_by: [] item_issues_status: [] item_issues_timestamp: [] item_issues_type: [] keywords: 'adaptation, artificial society, computational anthropology, creativity, culture, cultural evolution, cultural learning, diversity, drift, drives, epistasis, embodiment, evolution, fitness, imitation, innovation, Lamark, meme, memetic algorithm, memetic evolution, memory, mental simulation, mutation, neural network, optimization, overdominance, replication, selection, social learning, transmission, underdominance.' lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:02 latitude: ~ longitude: ~ metadata_visibility: show note: ~ number: ~ pagerange: 471-485 pubdom: FALSE publication: 1993 Lectures in Complex Systems publisher: Addison Wesley refereed: FALSE referencetext: ~ relation_type: [] relation_uri: [] reportno: ~ rev_number: 8 series: ~ source: ~ status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:30:13 subjects: - bio-evo - bio-pop - bio-theory - cog-psy - comp-sci-art-intel - comp-sci-complex-theory - comp-sci-mach-dynam-sys - comp-sci-mach-learn - comp-sci-neural-nets - evol-psy - phil-epist - soc-psy succeeds: ~ suggestions: ~ sword_depositor: ~ sword_slug: ~ thesistype: ~ title: 'Meme and Variations: A Computational Model of Cultural Evolution' type: bookchapter userid: 352 volume: ~