There’s certainly mathematical models of rumors, which is a similar enough but not quite the same concept.
From memory, they model similar to epidemics, which I’m not sure how that related to genetic drift and selection.
I seem to remember more elaborate techniques that I think were trying to capture genetic drift and selection, but I can’t find them at the moment.
A quick google along the lines of “mathematical model meme propagation” does tend to pop up quite a few models. Here are two that seemed interesting: http://cogprints.org/531/1/mav.htm and http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2000/vol4/kendal_jr&laland_kn.html
So, perhaps start with my references.
Interesting models started in the 1970s, and there were three books on the topic in the early 1980s:
Lumsden, C. and Wilson, Edward O. (1981) Genes, Mind, and Culture.
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. & Feldman, M. W. (1981) Cultural transmission and evolution: A quantitative approach.
Richerson, Peter J. and Boyd, Robert (1985) Culture and the evolutionary process.
Since then the field has exploded.
The article Mathematical Models for Memetics explains how this material relates to memetics.
There’s certainly mathematical models of rumors, which is a similar enough but not quite the same concept.
From memory, they model similar to epidemics, which I’m not sure how that related to genetic drift and selection.
I seem to remember more elaborate techniques that I think were trying to capture genetic drift and selection, but I can’t find them at the moment.
A quick google along the lines of “mathematical model meme propagation” does tend to pop up quite a few models. Here are two that seemed interesting: http://cogprints.org/531/1/mav.htm and http://cfpm.org/jom-emit/2000/vol4/kendal_jr&laland_kn.html
So, perhaps start with my references.
Interesting models started in the 1970s, and there were three books on the topic in the early 1980s:
Lumsden, C. and Wilson, Edward O. (1981) Genes, Mind, and Culture.
Cavalli-Sforza, L. L. & Feldman, M. W. (1981) Cultural transmission and evolution: A quantitative approach.
Richerson, Peter J. and Boyd, Robert (1985) Culture and the evolutionary process.
Since then the field has exploded.
The article Mathematical Models for Memetics explains how this material relates to memetics.