Our minds are more like a computer than we know, but instead of being maintained by a set of electrical relays, like a normal virtual computer, our minds run using a set of chemical reactions. Memes just elicit an instant emotional response, by ways of inducing different chemicals to be released in the brain. However, these chemicals reactions can only be caused by something that is constructed in reality, whether its drugs induced, or is cause by an experience.

These chemical reactions were originally designed to work in nature, as a form of survival mechanism. Animal only eat or have sex, because it causes their brains to secrete dopamine, which makes them feel happy. If they didn’t do these things, their species would cease to exist. However, humankind has found other ways to cause similar chemical reactions to occur in our brains, usually utilizing artificial methods, which usually negative consequences, such as drug abuse or porn addiction.