Very well described here: https://unaligned.world/p/life-is-memetics.
Natural selection is at play in every information system. “No matter how abstract you get, information - be it chemical structure, body shape, or poem - proliferates and mutates to find an environmental optimum.”
It’s important to be able to identify what the different factors are that influence the selection.
Examples:
- The religions that spread are the ones that are most attractive
- The news that reaches you had to be the type of news that could spread to reach you
- The most famous book is not necessarily the “best” because there are other factors that influence the selection