Idea Evolution
NetworkLineageReligionPhilosophyInternetAI Future

Idea Evolution

The civilization-scale system of memes, religions, ideologies, paradigms, and narratives.

Civilization is built by shared stories.
The most powerful ideas are not always the most true — they are the most transmissible. Human history is the evolution and competition of mental worlds.

Global Idea Network

Where ideas were born. Where they spread. Where they collided.
EARTH · 29 ideas

Memetic Lineage

Every idea descends from earlier ideas. Mutation is the rule, not the exception.
LINEAGE · 29 nodes · 30 edges1500 BCE1000 BCE500 BCE0500100015002000BuddhismChristianityIslamConfucianismHinduismDaoismJudaismUpanishadic thoughtGreek philosophyLegalismStoicismExistentialismLiberalismMarxismNationalismFascismTranshumanismScientific methodEvolution by natural selectionRelativityQuantum mechanicsArtificial intelligenceThe meme (concept)Image macro / TikTok formatAI-generated narrativeConspiracy systemsPhoenician alphabetChinese charactersThe Cross

Religion Propagation

Watch the great faiths radiate across centuries.
PROPAGATION · 2000 CEBuddhismChristianityIslamConfucianismHinduismJudaism
2000 CE

Idea Survival Probability

Resonance + Simplicity + Institutions + Technology + Adaptability + Utility + Narrative + Symbol
ResonanceSimplicityInstitutionTechnologyAdaptabilityUtilityNarrativeSymbol

Buddhism

A path of liberation founded by Siddhartha Gautama, transmitted along trade routes from the Indo-Gangetic plain across Asia.
Resonance + Simplicity + Institutions + Technology + Adaptability + Utility + Narrative + Symbol

Other Systems

Each is a lens onto the same evolutionary substrate.
SYSTEM 01

Global Idea Network

Geography of every meme that mattered. Origins, routes, frontiers.

LIVE
SYSTEM 02

Memetic Lineage

Every idea has parents. Watch the family tree of human thought.

LIVE
SYSTEM 03

Religion Propagation

Six great faiths radiating across millennia of trade routes and empires.

LIVE
SYSTEM 04

Philosophy & Ideology

From Greek city-state debates to AI ethics — the long argument continues.

EXTENDING
SYSTEM 05

Internet Meme Civilization

Image macros, TikTok formats, AI slop — high-speed evolutionary pressure.

EXTENDING
SYSTEM 06

Scientific Paradigms

How worldviews die: not by argument, but by their adherents retiring.

EXTENDING
SYSTEM 07

Symbols & Compression

Why a cross beats a thousand words. Bandwidth choices that hold civilizations together.

EXTENDING
SYSTEM 08

Narrative Warfare

Propaganda, censorship, AI persuasion. Stories as weapons of state.

EXTENDING
SYSTEM 09

AI & Future Ideologies

What happens when ideologies are produced by non-humans at near-zero cost?

EXTENDING
SYSTEM 10

Civilization Memory

Tablets, scrolls, libraries, the internet, blockchain. The history of remembering.

EXTENDING

Ask the System

An AI trained as memetics researcher, historian, anthropologist, network scientist.
Imagine your question as a thread across eras — the system will walk along it.