The Life of Memes. Traditional Technologies and the Transmission of Knowledge

AbstractThe contemporary technological context builds the premises for a world awash with information, a world of continuous innovation. Innovation itself is not problematic but the rhythm of innovation to which both cognition and culture struggles to adapt.My research focuses on understanding the patterns of information loss in the process of transmitting technological gestures and finding ways to preserve traditional technologies in artistic formulas. In documenting traditional technologies I acknowledge that the transmission of information from one generation to another is not identical and, into this breach either innovation or extinction of a practice will ultimately follow.As a method of study I brought together, an interdisciplinary approach, the concept of meme and technological information and, I associated the loss of technological practices with entropy. In this paper I will emphasize the patterns of replication and the selective forces that model meme transmission, considering the tendency for the high levels of entropy that systems develop. Technological systems are open systems in which replicators are subjected to forces of cultural and physical environment but systems can also develop self-regulatory mechanisms to maintain balance. The preservation of tradition or design can determine the degree of balance within the cultural system