Memetic Hazard
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Uploaded by First Last Feb 11, 2016 at 06:40PM EST
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![A Memetic Lexicon Glenn Grant, Memetoist An idea is something you have an ideology is something that has you" What if ideas were viruses? Consider the T-phage vius. A T-phage cannot replicate tselt, it reproduces by hijacking the DNA of a bacterium, forcing its host to make milionns of copies of the phage. Similarly, an idea can parasitically nfect your mind and alter your behavior, causing you to want to tell your friends about the idea, thus exposing them to the idea-virus. Any idea which does this is called a "meme (pronounced meem Unike a virus, which is encoded in DNA molecuies, a meme is nothing more than a pattern of information, one that happens to have evolved a form which induces people to repeat that pattern. Typical memes include individual slogans, ideas, catch phrases, melodies, icons, inventions, and fashions. It may sound a bit sinister, this idea that peopla are hosts for mind atering strings of symbols, but in fact this is what human culture is all about As a species, we have co evolved with our memes. Imagine a group of early H--- Sapiens in the Late Pleistocene epoch. They've recently arrived with the latest high-tech hand axes and are trying to show their H--- Erectus neighbours how to makke them. Those who cant get their heads around the new meme will be at a disadvantage and will be out-evolved by their smarter cousins Meanwhile, the memes themselves are evolving. just as in the game of Telephone" (where a message is whispered from person to person, being slightly mis-replicated each time). Selection favors the memes which are easiest to understand, to remember, and to communicate to others. Garbled versions of a useful meme would presumably be selected out So, in theory at least, the abilty to understand and commuricale complex memes is a survival trait, and natural selection should favor those who aren't too conservative to understand new memes. Or does R? In practice, some people are going to be all too ready to commit any new meme that comes along, even if it should turn out to be deadly nonsense, ike "Jump off a cliftf and the gods will make you Such memes do evolve, generated by crazy people, or through mis replication Notice, though, that this meme might have a lot of appeal The idea of magica flight is so tantalizing- maybe, if i truly believed, I just might leap off the cliff and This is a vital point people try to infect each other with those memes which they find most appealing, regardless of the memes' objective value or truth. Further, the carrier of the cliff-jumping meme might never actually take the plunge they may spend the rest of their long lives infecting other people with the meme, inducing milions of guilible fools to leap to their deaths. Historically, this sort of thing is happening all the time whether memes can be considered true Tife foms" or not is a topic of some debate, but this is irrelevant: they behave in a way simlar to ife forms, alowing us to combine the analytical techniques of epidemiology, evolutionary science mmunology, linguistics, and semiotics, into an effective system known as "memetics. Rather than debate the inherent Truth" or lack of "truth of an idea, memetics is largely concerned with how that idea gets itself replicated Memetics is vital to the understanding of cults, ideologies, and marketing campaigns of all kinds, and it can help to provide immunity from dangerous information-contagions. You should be aware, for instance, that you just been exposed to the Meta-meme, the meme about memes The lexicon which foliows is intended to provide a language for the analysis of memes, meme-complexes, and the sccial movements they spawn. The name of the person who first coined and delined each word appears in parentheses, although some defintions have been paraphrased and altered Richard Dawkins, The Sash Ge. Howard Rhengold untranslatable words", whole Earthievew#57: 3-8, For a fictional treatment of these ideas, see my short story, "Memetic Drift," in Mterzone #34 (MarchApi 1990) Dangerous to itselt. Highly auto-tooic memes are usualy selt-limiting because they promote the destruction of their hosts (such as the Jim Jones meme, any miltary indoctrination meme-complex, any martyrdom meme). (GMG) bait The part of a meme-complex that promises to benefit the host (usualy in return for replicating the complex). The bait usually justifies, but does not explicity urge, the replication of a meme-complex (Donald Going, quoted by Hofstadter )Also caled the reward co-meme. (In many religions, "Savation" is the bait, or promised reward, "Spread the Word is the hook. Other common bait co-memes are Elemal Bliss", "Security", "Prosperity, "Freedom) (See hook, threat, infection strategy.) Since a person can only be infected with and transmit a finite number of memes, there is a limit to their belief space (Henson). Memes evolve in competition for niches in the beliet -space of indviduals and societies Arry attempt to hinder the spread of a meme by elminating is vectors. Hence, censorship is analogous to attempts to halt dseases by spraying insecticides. Censorship can never fully kill off an oftensive meme, and may actually help to promote the meme's most vrulent strain, while kiling otf milder forms A meme which has symbiotically co-evoved with other memes, to form a mutualy assising meme-complex. Also called a symmeme. (GMG) cult A sociotype of an auto toxic meme-complex, composed of membots and/or memeoids. (GMG) Characteristics of cults include: selt isolation of the infected group (or at least new recruits), brainwashing by repettive exposure (inducing dependent mental states), genetic functions discouraged (through celbacy, stenilization, devalued famiy) in favor of replication (proselytizing), and leader-worship (personalty cult") (Henson) Currently without human hosts. The ancient Egyptan hieroglyph system and the Gnostic Gospels are examples of dead schemes which lay dormant for millennia in hidden or untranslatable texts, waiting to re-activate themselves by infecting modern archeologists Some obsolete memes never become entirely dormant, such as Phlogiston theory, which simply mutated from a "belief into a "quaint historical footnote A tune or melody which infects a population rapidy" (Rheingold), a hit song (Such as Don't Worry, Be Happy (f German, ohrwwm-eaworm Dangerous to others Highly exo-toxic memes promote the destruction of persons other than their hosts, particularly those who are carriers of rival memes (Such as: Nazism, the Inquisition, Pol Pot ) (See meme-alergy.) (GMG) The part of a meme-complex that urges replication. The hook is often most effective when it is not an explicit statement, but a logical consequence of the meme's content (Hofstadter) (See bait, threat) A person who has been successfuly infected by a meme. See infection, membot, memeoid The realm of memetic evolution, as the biosphere is the realm of biological evolution. The enbre memetic ecology. (Hofstadter.) The health of an ideosphere can be measured by its memetic diversity hook host Anything that tends to reduce a person's memetic immunity Common immuno-depressants are: travel, dsorientation, physcal and emotional exhaustion, insecurity, emotional shock, loss of home or loved ones, future shock, culture shock, isolation stress, unfamiiar social situations, certain drugs, loneliness, alienation, paranoia, repeated exposure, respect for Authority, escapism, and hypnosis (suspension of critical judgment) Recruiters for cults ofen target airports and bus terminals because travelers are ikely to be subject to a number of these immuno-depressants. (GMG) (See cult 1. Successful encoding af a meme in the memory of a human being A memetic infection can be either active or inactive. It is inacive if the host does not feel inclined to transmit the meme to ather people. An active infection causes the host to want to infect others. Fanatically active hosts are often membots or memeoids. A person who is exposed to a meme but who does not remember it (consciously or othenwise) is not infected. (A host can indeed be unconsciously infected, and even transmit a meme without conscious awareness of the fact Many societal norms are transmited this way.) (GMG) 2. Some memeticists have used infection' as a synonym for belief (ie only believers are infected, non-belevers are not). However, this usage ignores the tact that people often transmit memes they do not "believe in. Songs jokes, and fantasies are memes which do not rely on beliet as an infection strategy Any memetic strategy which encourages infection of a host. Jokes encourage infection by being humorous, tunes by evoking various emotions, slogans and catch phrases by being terse and continuously repeated Common infection strategies are la n vs vctim Fear o Death and ense o ommunity In mer e comple the bait co-eme s o en central to the infection strategy See replication strategy, mm cry )(GMG) A person whose entre life has become subordinated to the propagation of a meme, robotically and at any opportunity. (Such as many Jehovah's Witnesses, Krishnas, and Scientologists.) Due to internal compettion, the most vocal and extreme membots tend to rise to top of their sociotype's hierarchy A self-destructive membot is a memeoid (GMG) (pron meem) A contagious information pattern that replicates by parasitically infecting human minds and altering their behavior, causing them to propagate the pattern. (Term coined by Dawkins, by analogy with "gene"Individual slogans, catch-phrases, melodies, icons, inwentions, and fashions are typical memes. An idea or information pattem is not a meme unbl it causes someone to replicate it, to repeat it to someone else. All transmitted knowledge is memetic (weelis, quoted in Hofstadter } (See mem6-complex). A form of intolerance a condition which causes a person to react in an unusually extreme manner when exposed to a specific semiotic stimulus, or meme-allergen. Exo-toxic meme-complexes typically confer dangerous meme-alergies on their hosts Often, the actual meme-allergens need not be present, but merely perceived to be present, to trigger a reaction, Common meme-alergies include homophobia, paranoid anti-Communism, and p---- phobia Common forms of meme-alergic reaction are censorship, vandalism, belligerent verbal abuse, and physical viclence. (GMG) A set of mubually-assisting memes which have co-evoved a symbiotic relationship. Reigious and political dogmas, social movements, artistic styles, traditions and customs, chain letters, paradigms, languages, elc. are meme-complexes. Also caled an m-plex, or scheme (Hofstadter). Types of co-memes commonly found in a scheme are caled the: bait hook; threat, and vaccime. A successful scheme commonly has certain attributes: wide scope a paradigm that explains much opportunity for the car ers o particpate nd contribute; con ction of its self vident truth carnes Authority of ers order and a sense of place, he ng to stave off the dread of A person "whose behavior is so strongly influenced by a [meme] that their own survival becomes inconsequential in their own minds" (Henson) (Such as: Kamikazes, S---- terrorists, Jim Jones folowers, any miltary personnel Hosts and membots are not necessarily memeoids. (See auto-toxic; exo4oxic) The full diversity of memes accessible to a culture or individual Leaming languages and traveling are methods of expanding one's meme pool. Accumulated mis-repications, (the rate of) memetic mutation ar evolution Whitten texds tend to slow the memetic drift of dogmas (Henson). One who consciously devises memes, through meme-splicing and memetic synthesis, ith the intent of atering the behavior af others. Writers of manifestos and of commercials are typical memetic engineers. (GMG) One who studies memetics 2 A memetic engineer. (GMG) The study of memes and their social effects memetic engineer The actual information-content of a meme, as distinct from its sociotype. 2. A class of simlar memes (GMG) the The concept of memes, considered as a Any of several currently-epidemic memes which predict catastrophic events for the year 2000, including the battle of Armageddon, the Rapture, the thousand-year reign of Jesus, etc. The "imminent New Age" meme is simply a pan-denomination"뇌 version of this (Also called the Endmemn®> An infection strategy in which a meme attempts to imitate the semiotics of another successful meme. Such as pseudo-science (Creationism, UFOlogy) pseudo-rebeliousness (Heavy Metal), subversion by forgery (Situationist Any memetic strategy used by a meme to encourage its host to repeat the meme to other people. The hook co-meme of a meme-complex. (GMG) A meme which attempts to spice itself into an existing meme-complex (example: Marost-Leninists trying to co-opt other sociotypes) (GMG) I The social e pression o a memo ype,萎the body of n organs n s te physcal egress on phenotype of the gene genotype social Hence, the Protestant Church s one socio e of the Bible's me type 2 A class of smilar threat The part of a meme-complex that encourages adherence and discourages mis-replication (Damnation to Helr is the threat co-meme in many religious schemes ) (See: bait, hook, vaccime) (Hofstadter) A meta-meme which confers resistance to a wide variety of memes (and their sociotypes), without conferring meme-alergies In its purest form, Tolerance alows its host to be repeatedly exposed to rival memes, even intolerant rivais, without acive infection or meme-allergic reacion. Tolerance is a central co-meme in a wide variety of schemes, particularly Tiberalism", and "democracy" Without it, a scheme will often become exo-toxic and conter meme-allergies on its hosts Since schemes compete for finite belief-space, tolerance is not necessarly a virtue, but it has co-evolved in the ideosphere in much the same way as co-operation has evolved in biological ecosystems (pron vak-seem) Any meta-meme which confers resistance or immunity to one or more memes, allowing that person to be exposed without acquiring an active infection. Also called an 'immuno-meme' Common immune conferring memes are "Faith, "Loyalty", "Skepticism", and "tclerance". (See: meme-alergy.)(GMG) Every scheme includes vaccine to protect against rival memes For instance . Conservatism: automatically resist al new memes. Science: test new memes for theoretical consistency and (where applicable) empirical repeatablity, continually re-assess old memes, accept schemes only conditionally, pending future re-assessment Radicalism: embrace one new scheme, reject all others Nihilism: reject all schemes, new and old New Age: accept all estheticaly-appealing memes, new and old, regardless of empirical (or even internal) consistency, reject others. (Nole that this one doesn't provide much protection - Japanese: adapt (parts of) new schemes to the old ones vector A medium, method, or vehicle for the transmission of memes. Almost any communication medium can be a memeic vector. (GMG) An infection strategy common to many meme-complexes, placing the potential host in the role of Victim and playing on their insecunity, as in the bourgeoisie is oppressing the proletariar (Hofstadter). Otlen dangerously toxic to host and society in general. Also known as the Us-and-Them strategy Shart m怜 1990. by enn Grant. Montres www top co ggrant > You may e roduce this matenal, rty your rec prems ay so e r du港えyou do not ch a ge t and you ndude this notice see threat](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/078/573/745.png "A Memetic Lixicon")
