the source of behaviour: memetic vs genetic encoding
consider the bear catching salmon in a river. is this behaviour genetic or learned? the answer isn’t binary.
young bears isolated from others still demonstrate rudimentary fishing attempts - paw-swiping at water, basic stalking postures. these fundamental action patterns are genetically encoded. the neural pathways governing these movements form during development following genetic instructions. a bear that’s never witnessed fishing will still attempt something resembling fishing.
but watch an experienced mother bear with cubs. she demonstrates specific techniques: the perfect stance in rapids, the precise head-tilt to spot fish against glare, the optimal moment to strike. cubs observe, imitate, and refine these techniques through trial and error. what began as crude genetic templates becomes sophisticated through observational learning.
detecting the source
how do we determine which elements are genetic versus memetic? the isolation experiment is revealing. remove an offspring from its social group at birth and observe which behaviours emerge without demonstration.
bears raised in isolation will still attempt to fish, but with significantly lower success rates. they lack the refined techniques transmitted through observation. the genetic template exists, but the memetic optimization is missing.
similarly, many bird species have genetically encoded nest-building instincts, but the specific techniques and materials used often vary by population and are transmitted culturally. birds raised in isolation build crude nests - the basic instinct functions, but without the memetic refinements passed through observation.
these behavioural experiments create a spectrum:
- purely genetic (emerges identically in isolated individuals)
- genetic template with memetic refinement (basic pattern in isolation, sophisticated in social context)
- purely memetic (completely absent in isolated individuals)
memetic crystallization into the genome
over evolutionary time, certain memes can eventually become encoded into the genetic material - what we might call “crystallized memes.”
this process requires powerful selection pressures and thousands of generations. it occurs when a behaviour is so consistently advantageous that individuals with genetic predispositions toward that behaviour consistently outreproduce others.
for example, salmon-catching techniques that were once purely cultural might gradually gain genetic foundations. bears with slight neural predispositions toward effective fishing movements would catch more salmon, survive harsh winters better, and leave more offspring. over thousands of generations, genes that facilitate these neural patterns would become more common.
why doesn’t this happen more often? because memetic extinction events are rare. for a meme to crystallize into genes, the selection pressure must remain consistent across thousands of generations. climate shifts, predator-prey dynamics, or environmental changes typically occur much faster, altering which behaviours are advantageous before genetic encoding can complete.
when a bear stands in exactly the right position in a river, with precisely the right stance, we’re witnessing the combined result of genetics and memetics - ancient instincts refined through cultural transmission, with the most essential patterns potentially encoded into the genome through evolutionary time.
the genetic template and memetic refinement exist in constant dialogue, co-creating the behaviours we observe across species - including our own.