Prescribed Title Essay: Shared Knowledge and Memetics

My prescribed title essay is: With reference to two areas of knowledge discuss the way in which shared knowledge can shape personal knowledge.

I decided to examine the types of shared knowledge in our world, and came across concepts like knowledge management, big data, and memes. All of these terms relate to how knowledge is shared and changed among cultures and businesses. For my PTE, I want to further examine memes and its influence and importance in the world of business, human sciences, and natural sciences. 

Richard Dawkins coined the term "meme" with a different intention from what we use today. A meme, according to the biologist, is a “unit of culture” that spreads from person to person within a culture. It was a termed coined by Dawkins in his 1976 book, and came to rise in the 1990s as people gained interest in the concepts of cultures and ideas. The concept of a meme is that like genes, memes are a living idea that can be imitated, spread, and mutated within a society. Some memes can become extinct, or evolve through natural selection.

Susan Blackmore is a psychologist who expressed her own thoughts on memetics in her book “The Meme Machine.” I watched her Ted Talk, and she talked about Darwin and evolution. According to Blackmore, Darwin had proposed that evolution went beyond physical traits. Cultural traits, thoughts, and behaviors also undergo change through natural selection and mutation. This is the Darwinian theory of human cultural evolution.

I want to investigate the concept of memes in today's digital, globally connected society. With the presence of the internet, smartphones, and whatnot, a lot of people in our world think that we are more connected than ever. The unique personal knowledge of millions are shared to the public through social media sites, and are categorized into sets of data by computerized machines. In return, we see things in media that influence our opinions into one. I think that a lot of the development of the digital age has caused a lot of shared knowledge to control personal knowledge, almost like monolithic thinking. With references to psychology, science, and business, I hope to write an essay related to memetics in today's world.