Evolution cannot create something out of nothing, and it is time to ask where memes came from in the first place. What must the minds of our ancestors have been like, in order to account for the emergence of memetic culture, and what might the early evolution of memes have been like?

The Emergence of Genes

It will be useful to look first at the significant elements of the emergence of physical life on our planet. Before the emergence of replicators, there was physical material in abundance but no consistent or complex organisation. In addition to the plethora of simple matter, there were also various energy sources (e.g., the ultraviolet rays from the sun, or lightning). This energy stimulated the combination of simple matter into more complex forms. The forms that persisted would, of course, be those that were stable.

There are several theories about the type of matter that was involved in this primeval combination. Here I stick with the standard “soup” hypothesis which claims that the initial material consisted of organic molecules, but in fact it is irrelevant to the gene thesis which of the options is actually true. The important element of any such theory is that the most significant occurrence was the appearance of a stable form that was also able to make copies of itself. By “stable” it is meant that a particular combination of molecules will persist, if it occurs at all. If it is unstable, then it will not last for long.