Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 2007, 72, 223-251
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc20070223

Artificial Chemistry and Replicator Theory of Coevolution of Genes and Memes

Vladimír Kvasnička* and Jiří Pospíchal

Institute of Applied Informatics, Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies, Slovak Technical University, 84216 Bratislava, Slovakia

Abstract

A simple replication theory of coevolution of genes and memes is proposed. A population composed of pairs of genes and memes, the so-called m-genes, is postulated as a subject of Darwinian evolution. Three different types of operations over m-genes are introduced: Replication (an m-gene is replicated with mutations onto an offspring m-gene), interaction (a memetic transfer from a donor to an acceptor), and extinction (an m-gene is eliminated). Computer simulations of the present model allow to identify different mechanisms of gene and meme coevolution.

Keywords: Chemostat; Replicator; Meme; Memetics; Coevolution; Darwinian evolution; Social learning; Evolvability; In silico chemistry.

References: 34 live references.