0092 According to Dennett, a meme is a unit of information worth having.  If a meme is worth having, then it is worth paying attention to.  A meme is a unit of cultural information.  “A meme” rhymes with “gene”, a unit of information coded by DNA.

Of course, I can also say that a “meme” sounds like “mean” and “gene” sounds like “jean”.

0093 That raises the question, “What is information?”

Well, “semantic information” is encoded and specifies its own interpretation. 

0094 Surely, that sounds like the work of the specifying sign.

So, a meme behaves as if it contains semantic information because it activates (what the scholastics call) specificative extrinsic formal causality, otherwise known as a specifying sign.  The specifying sign connects the content and situation levels of the scholastic manifest image.

0095  In terms of semiotics, an impression_2a (SV_s) stands for a perception (SO_s) in regards to the question, “What does it mean to me?”_3b contextualizing the possibility of situating content_1b (SI_s).

Dennett calls the coupling of a content-level sign-vehicle (SV_s) to a situation-level sign-object (SO_s), “semantic information”, because, often enough, the species impressa_2a merely decodes spoken words and grammar.  The qualifier, “semantics”, associates to spoken language.  Semantic information offers designs worth getting, differences that makes a difference, and opportunities that go with Gibson’s term, “affordance”.

0096 So, right at the start, I know that the species expressa_2b (SO_s) virtually situates content_2a in such a manner that the species impressa_2a (SV_s) is meaningful to me_3b (SI_s).  But, that is not all.  Species impressa_2a (SV_s) also offers clues to presence (who speaks to me?) and message (why speak to me?) (SI_s).

0097 To Daisy, the cat (er… the species impressa_2a of the neighbor’s cat_2a (SV_s) stands for a species expressa_2b, a little monster… or maybe, an animated morsel… equipped with paws with claws_2b (SO_s).

To me, the fact that Daisy’s tail tucks between her hind legs_2a (SV_s)) stands for her fear and loathing of the neighbor’s cat_2b (SO_s) in regards to our morning walk_3b (SI_s).

Neither Daisy nor the cat know why this drama plays out with regularity.  The lady next door throws out her trash just before I take Daisy on her routine walk.  Her open door serves as an opportunity for the neighbor’s obnoxious cat to scamper out of its indoor enclave.

0098 I cultivated an additional incentive.  I planted catnip among the neighbor’s untrimmed verge, which the cat finds attractive.  Now, as soon as the neighbor lady opens her door, the cat scampers out and beelines to this destination, a garden of intoxication, where she is always surprised by Daisy and puts up a wonderful display of threats and hissing.

Daisy is so perplexed by this stoned feline that she either wants to protect me or expects me to protect her.  The leash pulls tight either forward or backward, depending on the suddenness of the realization of this dramatic species impressa_2a(SV_s).

0099 Clearly, the cat_2a is a meme.

Plus, it_2a is more than a meme.

Daisy’s tail going between her hind legs_2a is a meme.

Plus, it_2a is more than a meme.

0100 As the encounter achieves greater regularity (thanks to the catnip taking root, plus the morning routines), Daisy is slowly coming to a consistent species expressa_2a (SI_s).

Nevertheless, she is regularly confounded.