25 OCT 2017 by ideonexus
The False Promise of WWW Enlightenment
Never before have so many people been connected together in an instantly responsive network through which memes can spread faster than natural viruses. But the notion that taking the whole world online would create a utopia of netizens, all equal in cyberspace, was always a fantasy—as much a delusion as Luther’s vision of a “priesthood of all believers.” The reality is that the global network has become a transmission mechanism for all kinds of manias and panics, just as the combinati... 1 
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notes07 NOV 2014 by ideonexus
Borg Weaknesses
Memetic Infection
One of the most worrying weaknesses is the spread of virulent information patterns such as memes. Memes thrive in environments with intense communication (Bjarneskans et al. 1997), and would likely spread extremely quickly inside a borganism, infecting both collective and unit schemata. Having a working system for memetic defence appears to be vital for the well-being of a borganism, especially in the face of memes similar to computer viruses (in the cybernetic environment ...Folksonomies: borganism
Folksonomies: borganism
1 notes
notes12 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Selections From a Memetic Lexicon
Auto-toxic
Dangerous to itself. Highly auto-toxic memes are usually self-limiting because they promote the destruction of their hosts (such as the Jim Jones meme; any military indoctrination meme-complex; any "martyrdom" meme). (GMG) (See exo-toxic.)
bait
The part of a meme-complex that promises to benefit the host (usually in return for replicating the complex). The bait usually justifies, but does not explicitly urge, the replication of a meme-complex. (Donald Going, quoted by Hofstadte... 1 notes
notesThe most useful and interesting terms.
29 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Memetic Sex
There are many similarities between genes and memes. Just as genes transmitted during sexual intercourse in the biosphere, so are ideas trans¬ mitted during social intercourse in the mental realm, or ideosphere.
[...]
The memetic realm also hahas some important differences from the genetic realm. Memes combine, recombine, mutate, and reproduce much more flexly and rapidly than genes do. This is one way that genetic sex does not map completely to memetic sex. For example, the memetic count...
1 Many of the concepts in genes apply to ideas, including cross-breeding, safe-sex, inbreeding, and species.
29 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
The Meme-Unit
It is possible that this appearance of non-particulateness is illusory, and
that the analogy with genes does not break down. After all, if we look at
the inheritance of many genetic characters such as human height or
skin-colouring, it does not look like the work of indivisible and
unblendable genes. If a black and a white person mate, their children do
not come out either black or white: they are intermediate. This does not
mean the genes concerned are not particulate. It is just that there ... 1 notes
notesLike genes, there is no particulate unit for memes. Sometimes we must look at a whole symphony, sometimes it's just a few notes.
27 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Science is the "Crucible" for Extending Life
People are living longer and societies are getting grayer. You hear about it all the time. You read about it in your newspapers. You hear about it on your television sets. Sometimes I'm concerned that we hear about it so much that we've come to accept longer lives with a kind of a complacency, even ease. But make no mistake, longer lives can and, I believe, will improve quality of life at all ages.
Now to put this in perspective, let me just zoom out for a minute. More years were added to av...Our culture, our memes account for our extended lifespans.
15 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
The Internet as a Brain
The brain is one of the most complex networks in the world, with more neurons than there are stars in the galaxy. Its hardware is a complex network of neurons; its software a complex network of memories. And so too is the Internet a network. Its hardware is a complex network of computers; its software a complex network of websites. There is a lot we can learn from the brain and it can tell us where the Internet is headed next.
[...]
In practice, the Internet is clunkier, slower, and smaller...The question for me is: How do you detect the intelligence? If we are only interacting with neurons, how to we see the big picture?
15 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
The Internet as a Superorganism
If the cloud is a vast array of personal computer processors, then why not add your own laptop or desktop computer to it? It in a certain way it already is. Whenever you are online, whenever you click on a link, or create a link, your processor is participating in the yet larger cloud, the cloud of all computer chips online. I call this cloud the One Machine because in many ways it acts as one supermegacomputer.
The majority of the content of the web is created within this one virtual compu...Folksonomies: intelligence emergence
Folksonomies: intelligence emergence
Built from a gazillion chips coordinating to distribute content, memes, calculations.
08 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
Taxonomy of Email Chains
Family Pyramides
This family is named for the pyramid scheme structure common to all members of the family. Each specimen in this family will include a list of addresses of its last 4 to 10 hosts, and instructs the current host to alter this list by adding his or her address to this list and removing the oldest address from it. Hosts are also directed to send a small sum of money to each name on the list.
Family Petitiones
Members of this family are characterized by the additional behaviou... 1 notes
notesFood for thought in considering a taxonomy of memes.
08 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Roger Ebert on What to Make of Life
What I expect to happen is that my body will fail, my mind will cease to function and that will be that. My genes will not live on, because I have had no children. I am comforted by Richard Dawkins’ theory of memes. Those are mental units: thoughts, ideas, gestures, notions, songs, beliefs, rhymes, ideals, teachings, sayings, phrases, clichés that move from mind to mind as genes move from body to body. After a lifetime of writing, teaching, broadcasting and telling too many jokes, I will l...
1 He knows that his ideas will live on, if not forever, and that the most important thing to contribute to the world in life is to make others a little happier.
