🌱 Let’s Begin with a Quick Reminder

So far, you’ve learned:

• Genes are tiny instructions inside every cell

• They tell your body how to grow and work

• Genes get copied when a baby is made

• Good copies usually survive and spread

Now we ask:

Can ideas act just like genes?

That might sound strange, but let’s explore it carefully.

💭 What Is an Idea?

An idea is:

• A thought you have

• Something you believe or imagine

• Something you remember or repeat

Examples of ideas:

• A song stuck in your head

• A rule like “don’t steal”

• A belief like “be kind”

• A story, a joke, a dream, a new game

These aren’t physical like arms or legs.
They live inside your brain.

But they can still be passed from one person to another.

🧬 Genes Spread Through Copying

Let’s remember how genes spread:

• Gene A helps a body survive

• That body has babies

• Gene A gets copied and passed on

• More and more people now have Gene A

Only the gene copies that help survival or copying stick around.

Now look at this:

📢 Ideas Spread Through Sharing

Let’s look at a joke:

“Why did the chicken cross the road?”
“To get to the other side!”

You hear it. You laugh. You tell your friend.
They tell someone else.

Now 5 people know the joke.
Then 50. Then 5,000!

That joke just got copied, just like a gene does.

But instead of living in a cell, it lives in brains.

🧠 Richard Dawkins and Memes

Richard Dawkins (the scientist who wrote the book The Selfish Gene) had an idea:

“Some ideas behave like genes.”

He gave these brain-copying ideas a name:
Memes (rhymes with “dreams”).

A meme is an idea, habit, or behavior that spreads from one person to another.

NOT the silly internet pictures you see today.
That word came later and just borrowed the name.

🧩 How Are Memes Like Genes?

Let’s compare them:

🧠 Do Memes Want to Survive?

No. Ideas can’t “want” anything.

But some memes are better at copying than others.

Just like genes.

Some are:

• Catchy

• Easy to remember

• Easy to share

Those memes spread more.
Others get forgotten.

🧠 Are All Memes Good?

Nope.

Some memes are:

• Wrong

• Harmful

• Just plain silly

But they still spread if they’re catchy or powerful.

Example:
A false rumor can spread faster than the truth
if people find it exciting or scary

That’s like a selfish gene — not always helpful, just good at surviving.

📚 Good vs. Sticky

Let’s say:

• Gene A helps your body stay strong → spreads

• Gene B does nothing or causes problems → doesn’t spread much

Same with memes:

• Meme A helps you learn → may spread

• Meme B is funny but untrue → might spread even more

That’s because:

A meme doesn’t have to be true or good — just copyable.

That’s why we sometimes believe or repeat things without checking them.

🐒 Even Animals Have Simple Memes

Some animals can pass on behavior.

For example:

• A monkey uses a stick to get ants from a hole

• Her baby sees and copies

• That baby teaches their baby one day

That tool-using trick becomes a kind of meme — passed by watching and copying, not genes.

🧠 Where Do Memes Live?

They live in:

• Brains

• Books

• Songs

• Videos

• Speech

Anything that helps an idea get copied and shared is a place where memes can live.

🔁 How Memes “Compete”

Ideas can compete with other ideas, like:

• “Eat with your hands” vs. “Eat with a spoon”

• “The Earth is round” vs. “The Earth is flat”

The idea that spreads better wins — even if it’s wrong.

That’s why teaching, thinking, and questioning are so important!

🧠 Recap

✅ Ideas can behave like genes
✅ They spread by being shared, not by babies
✅ These idea-genes are called memes
✅ Some memes are helpful, some are not
✅ Memes live in brains, books, songs, and more
✅ Memes compete — the most “copyable” ones win