Alligator Story

Have you ever heard the story about the New York sewer alligators? I see some of you have. Well, the story goes like this; A family in New York decides to relent to their children’s requests for alligator pets. This, of course, is a terrible idea. The family either releases them into the sewers in purpose, or the gators escaped, depending on who you ask. Either way, there’s now a bunch of alligators in the New York sewers, striking fear into the hearts of the waste management service. How about ‘twinkle twinkle little star’? More people are on board with that. We’ve all heard the song.

Oh, by the way; that alligator story? Totally false. There are no alligators in the sewers, and it never happened. Despite that fact, the stories about sewer gators have been around since about 1930.

Where am I going with this, you ask? Well, the story and the
A successful replicator needs to be true to the original, stay true for a long time, and replicate quickly.

Longevity is first, and is rather self-explanatory. The longer a gene or meme can last, the more chances it will have in replicating itself, passing on its message. For instance, the alligator story is a fantastic meme, because it is interesting enough to stay in someone’s memory and unique enough to warrant sharing.

Next is Fecundity, or the ability to rapidly reproduce. For instance, the common fruit fly can lay several thousand eggs in a day, and each fruit fly is ready to breed the next generation within a week. The fruit fly genes get copied thousands of times. Likewise, memes are often repeated to others, especially if they become a cultural corner stone, like ‘twinkle twinkle’ or ‘happy birthday to you’. Each time you repeat the meme, you have the chance of giving it to someone who didn’t previously have that knowledge.

Here, I’ll write the terms on the board. Longevity, Fecundity, and