Written language allowed two things to happen that couldn’t have occurred before its development. It allowed the unaltered transmission of ideas through time without having to resort to the vagaries of memorization and oral traditions, and it allowed complex ideas to be represented and stored in an externalized, memory storage system. It also allowed for clear communication at distances between individuals who couldn’t, for administrative reasons, leave their posts. Writing spread quickly amongst humans, who evolved as a mimetic species, that is, a species that copied patterns initiated by others of its species and perpetuated them as culture.

Susan Blackmore, in her article The Power of Memes in the October 2000 issue of Scientific American (283:69) says about the beginnings of culture and language that: it would pay for people to mate with the most proficient imitators, because by and large, good imitators have the best survival skills. Through this effect, sexual selection, guided by memes, could have played a role in creating our big brains. By choosing the best imitator for a mate, women help propagate the genes needed to copy religious rituals, colourful clothes, singing, dancing, painting and so on. By this process, the legacy of past memetic evolution becomes embedded in the structures of our brains and we become musical, artistic and religious creatures. Our big brains are selective imitation devices built by and for the memes as much as for the genes.

But there is another aspect of writing that became increasingly important in terms of the memetic evolution of humans, and that was specifically its ability to extend the capability of the human brain by providing an external memory repository. There is a current business term, “off-site data storage,” that refers to a data security strategy that ensures the survival of essential corporate information. “Off-site” storage simply means that any important data should not only be regularly “backed-up,” but should also be duplicated and stored at a location at some physical distance from the main data-storage site, in case of fire or other unforeseen calamity. In much the same way, written language, (as well as being the paramount method of human communication at a distance) is also is a method of storing our thoughts and memories at an “off-site” location, distant from our own minds, consequently ensuring their preservation.