meme: this is the Oxford English Dictionary meme’s definition: “(ORIGIN Greek mimema ‘that which is imitated’, on the pattern of gene) an element of behaviour or culture passed on by imitation or other non-genetic means.”; an elementary information unit which is copied during an evolutionary process, i.e. by variation and selection; see meme on wikipedia

memetics: the field of study concerning memes; it studies the evolutionary models related to the transmission of informations, knowledge and cultural preferences based on the intuitive concept of meme; see memetics on wikipedia

meme-complex: a set of memes strictly bound one to each other, not necessarily functionally related, co-evolving in an almost symbiotic way; see as an example “Also sprach Zarathustra” by Strauss and some cult scenes from “2001: A Space Odissey” by Kubrick, or ska musik and the skinheads’ scalp.

memotype: a set of memes functionally related one to each other, e.g. a political ideology, a religion, a philosophical current, a trend.

altruistic strategy: the altruistic strategy is based on the simple idea that a meme which reaches an unselfish or pleasant individual  gains a better chance to be transimitted than a meme which reaches a selfish or unpleasant individual. This means, in first place, that some memes may appear unselfish, even though they aren’t, just to be able to take root on a larger pool of altruistic people (whitout causing, i.e., cognitive clashes) and, in second place, that some memes could gather around really unselfish memes, constituting meme complexes having more chances to make way into unselfish people.