GENES, MEMES, TEMPLATES, AND REPLICATORS

Observed differences between living systems at the biological and soci al system levels may be attributable in part to differing characterist ics of their templates. Biological templates are alpha-coded in geneti c material. Social systems, on the other hand, employ beta- and gamma- coded instructions called memes that may constitute the bulk of their templates. A meme based template, called a charter, is more mutable th an a genetic template. Other interesting differences involve modes of reproduction of the system and replication of its template. This paper explores the similarities and differences between genetic and memic t emplates, and attempts to link them to convergent and divergent charac teristics of biological and social systems.