Depends what you mean by "mechanism". Memes are more like cells
that reproduce by mitosis, than like multi-cellular organisms
that go in for sexual reproduction. So there is no specialised
reproductive apparatus. Memes are fundamentally behavioural
patterns (we can argue about that if you like). Reproduction
occurs when a particular pattern, having been performed by one
individual, is as a result also performed by another. But this
is the *same* pattern, just as you and your family share (some
of) the *same* genes, so we can say that the pattern merely
continues to exist in the meme pool, without going to or coming
from anywhere in particular.
>Further, when you wrote "awareness is by the far the most important
>thing memetics can do, and I don't think it needs to be
>particularly scientific in
>order to do it," I was really scratching my head. What do you mean
>by "particularly scientific"? Isn't human awareness based in our
>neurophysiology? That would be scientific, I think. Don't you agree?
>
>Can you enlighten me?
I don't know! I was speaking very loosely. I didn't mean
that in the sense in which some say consciousness is a
memetic artifact, just that memetics can help us become aware
of certain aspects of our culture that are not otherwise very
obvious.
-- Robin