Still, there were plenty of lost memes. The damage speed of different media is different, the natural damage speed of paper products is very slow, and the natural damage speed of stone carving, lacquer painting and other products is even slower, which is the survival superiority; The natural destruction rate of models, audio and video products is much faster, which can be called a survival inferiority. In addition, various natural and man-made disasters will greatly accelerate the speed of cultural gene destruction. Sometimes people intentionally destroyed cultural genes, such as the burning of books by the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, the destruction of Buddhas in many dynasties, attacks by political enemies against each other and alter the contents of documents, and the destruction of evidence by criminals. Books related to politics and social beliefs are easy to be destroyed, which is survival inferiority; Books related to entertainment, meals, medicine, etc., are not easy to be destroyed, which is survival superiority. Cultural genes that are accepted by the public will be copied in large numbers, which is reproductive superiority, while most cultural genes that cannot be published publicly do not have reproductive advantages.

(1)The Principle of Natural Selection of Memes:

Major premise: The condition that the cultural gene is not extinct is that the speed of reproduction is greater than the speed of destruction;

Minor premise: There are heritable variations among cultural genes, some of which make the cultural gene reproduce in large numbers, which is reproductive superiority, some make the cultural gene not easily damaged, which is survival superiority; The opposite variations are inferior variations.

Conclusion: The cultural gene with superior variations is not easily lost, the cultural gene with inferior variations is easily lost.

The ability of human beings to preserve cultural genes is limited. A person can have a few thousand books and the number of books of public libraries is also limited. The number of cultural genes is very large, and now the circulation of books, audio and video products is increasing, and the internet information is rapidly expanding, so most of the cultural genes are bound to be destroyed. In order to prevent the extinction of cultural genes, the governments establish national libraries, which collects books, audiovisual products and various archives by administrative means. Modern technologies such as microphotographs and CDs have greatly improved the ability of human beings to preserve cultural genes, that is, the survival ability of cultural genes has greatly improved. Cultural genes protected by the government have a survival superiority, but unpublished texts, audiovisual products, and web pages are not protected by the government, and most of them are bound to die out.