The world’s richest man regularly interrupts his day to post memes on Twitter. He also spends time and money supporting the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin. To understand why Elon is an active memer, we should first establish what a meme is. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, the man who coined the term meme, conceptualized memes to be the cultural parallel to genes. According to Dawkins, memes are ideas that spread through a process similar to natural selection. Memes are constant...

The world’s richest man regularly interrupts his day to post memes on Twitter. He also spends time and money supporting the meme-inspired cryptocurrency Dogecoin. To understand why Elon is an active memer, we should first establish what a meme is. Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, the man who coined the term meme, conceptualized memes to be the cultural parallel to genes. According to Dawkins, memes are ideas that spread through a process similar to natural selection. Memes are constant...