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The necessary component of a meme-signal to ensure exposure is cybernetic noticibility. If the significance of a signal is both attractive and sufficiently different from the surrounding signals, it will garner enough attention to give the meme a greater probability of spreading. Old memes reframed in new ways are just as likely as likely as entirely new memes to be picked up, but for the transition from exposure to infection to occur the meme must address itself to the needs and priorities of its potential host. Of course, the needs of the host are partially influenced by its prior acceptance of other memes, which is one of the reasons we see memes cluster together.

We briefly addressed linked, webbed, or nested meme complex, let's bring that into focus now. For example, the impulse to eat isn't necessarily a meme, but one's belief that you need steak, sushi, or chocolate is a meme and one connected to many others. A secondary meme about what's the best sushi restaurant is going to infect more people who need sushi than people who need steak or chocolate.

When consciously designing a meme, there are a few principles to keep in mind, and each of these can be varied and should be periodically updated to make them fresh and attractive to your target public sphere:

• The actual physical representations of your signal.
• The cognitive principles that the message exploits to get past people's defenses.
• The emotions the signals evoke and the needs it promises to fulfill.
• The intent of the message and the actions in the target that this requires.