The Algorithmic Niche: an Integrative Framework for the Memetic Mind in Cultural Evolution.

The internet meme, a multimodal artifact of digital communication, has become a potent force in shaping contemporary culture, politics, and social behavior. Existing analyses have often examined memes through discrete lenses of cognitive psychology, cultural studies, or computer science. This review argues for a more profound, integrative framework grounded in the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES). It posits that the societal influence of internet memes is best understood as a manifestation of high-speed cultural evolution operating within a technologically constructed digital niche. This niche is the product of reciprocal causation between a deeply evolved human social psychology and the powerful selective pressures imposed by engagement-maximizing algorithms. This dynamic represents a novel and accelerated form of cultural niche construction, where cultural artifacts (memes) and the constructed environment (social media platforms) continuously alter the selective landscape for human behavior and cognition. This paper synthesizes insights from dual inheritance theory, niche construction theory, ethology, and behavioral epigenetics to provide a multi-level explanation for the memetic mind. It first explores the evolved psychological biases that make memes cognitively compelling. It then reframes algorithmic platforms as constructed niches that exert selective force on cultural variants. Subsequently, it analyzes the social function of memes as digital rituals and ethological signals that negotiate group identity. The framework is then applied to understand the proliferation of misinformation as a form of maladaptive cultural evolution. The paper concludes by proposing that addressing these challenges requires a paradigm of ethical niche construction, drawing on the human-centered AI principles of scholars like Don Shin, and considers the potential long-term epigenetic consequences of immersion in these powerful new environments.