Memes as Structural Signals: A Chemical Model of Interpretive Compatibility

Cultural propagation models have struggled to account for how complex meme structures arise, combine, and persist across interpretive contexts. We propose a new theoretical framework that models memes not as self-replicating units but as structured, interpretable configurations—analogous to a chemical concept known as a ‘pharmacophore’ —that act within an interpretive “reactome.” In this model, meme transmission depends not on replication fidelity but on affinity with internalized interpretive structures within the memetic reactome. This reconceptualization allows for selective inhibition, modular recombination, and functional clustering of memes, grounded in semiotic logic rather than genetic metaphor. Drawing on Peircean semiotics and biosemiotic critiques of transmission theories, we argue that memetic selection is better understood as constraint-based interpretability within a heterogeneous and evolving semantic ecology. This framework opens new directions for modeling meme evolution, including simulation of docking interactions and structure-function prediction within cultural systems.