Writer and researcher Sue Blackmore talks at the TED conferences about temes. Temes are memes transfered through technology. Memes are any kinds of repeated information, like the stories, habits, and rituals imitated from one generation to the next. Temes are memes communicated through technology.
The magic of memes and temes is that they use people as a media for replication, much the way genes use people as media for replication. It's a compelling idea that information uses people to spread, the same way viruses and other parasites create symbiotic relationships with people to scale their aliveness.
The idea and reality of temes speak to the fact that we have an infinitely greater responsibility for what we publish on the web than on what we banter about over coffee.
