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Evolution of Watergate as a meme, first, a piece of technology. Then a place, then a hotel, then a scandal, then the suffix “gate“.
Richard Dawkins: a meme is a unit of cultural transmission.
meme compete to survive in an environment where there are limited computing resources (the finite number of brains available to ingest new memes).
The brains are limited by the following:
memory
information processing capacity
time
The contagion effect: “The history of mankind is the history of contagious ideas“ (Dan Zarella).
This process of replication and mutation (rate of memetic mutation) relate to rule 6 and 7 of the biological rulebook.
The field of memetics.
Much more nebulous than other scientific fields because hard to quantify memes.
Scientists attempting to pinpoint the passage of thoughts and ideas from one brain to the next using imaging technology.
Looking for scientific definitions of a meme.
Computers can help us visualize the rate of transmission
7000 new tweets / second
1000 new images / second on Instagram
Memes as acts of collective human creativity
Ermahgerd meme history
Social media and the proliferation of memes destroying the creative industries?
Audience is no longer “captive“
Labor statistics indicates that there are more artists than ever before
Social media fosters artistic innovation
New pathways to creative collaboration between artists
vocaloid community for example
The methods with which viral content propagates
We usually don’t spread memes intentionally, we do it inadvertently during the act of “performing“ our selfhood on social media.
Viruses have a singular purpose, they highjack resources and genetic material from living cells to self-replicate. 4 distinct phases:
capsids (outer shell housing the virus’s genetic material) try to bind to cell’s outer receptors.
Requires compatibilities with protein structure of the receptor
once attached, the capsid tries to enter the cell using variety of protein-based signals intended to deceive the cell into believing that the virus contains nutritional or other value.
once inside, virus trick the cell’s protein production process to follow the instructions in its own genome
Once in control, the virus multiplies multiple times until the cell bursts open, releasing the new clones back into the metabolism, where they recursively multiply following the same method.
The virus experiences exponential growth until the immune system is able to regain control.
Viral content follows a similar journey:
Binding to the target cell’s affinity receptors (assimilation, Francis Heylighen) requires a certain level of compatibility.
Pattern recognition is used by the cell to detect threats
Heylighen’s criteria for successful assimilation
distinctiveness
novelty
conformity (to existing mental framework)
authority
Clickbait formula “You’re no going to believe what happens next“
Retention: committing it to some form of memorization
Expression: encode it in a transferrable form
that is where mutations come into play
Transmission: send the re-encoded package to others
Depends on the breadth of the network, the connectedness and the appeal of the sender.
What should a meme contain?
Emotions are the key ingredients, because of rule 5: Response to Stimuli:
Wharton Business School study on propensity to share news story based on emotional triggers.
Limbic system:
dopamine
endorphins
oxytocin
serotonin
Cute animals, jokes, trigger these neurotransmitters.
Anger triggers adrenaline, fight or flight response, which is also intoxicating.
Chapter 5: Balanced Diet
David Bowie, performativity, multiple versions of the self, Mimesis, story telling, deception
The selfie as the ultimate form of social media performance.
This dynamic of self-expression is not unidirectional. The audience’s reaction is also a factor in the final result.
While we can exercise total control over how we express our identity, we have no control over how The Social Organism will interpret, even reconstruct it.
Coke and Mentos videos anecdote.
Red Lobster and Beyonce (“When he fuck me good I take him to Red Lobster“)
Do not fight it
Don’t starve the organism with lawsuits
Wharton Business School study showed that the two attributes to replication were:
Emotional trigger
potential for action
Nourishment of the Social Organism needs to be well balanced (positive), it also needs to be well packaged.
non-linear, object based narrative form
posted as chunks in different streams so that they can be re-assembled as a coherent storyline through hashtags or search engine query.
Counter-example of #AskJPM
Watch your tone, don’t tell them what to think
Chapter 6: The immune system
Social media can be a very effective tool for causing social harm.
No negative feedback loop to deter people from engaging in the worst behavior.
The Social Organism is divided into echo chambers.
The power dynamics are similar to those of the real world, giving some groups disproportionate power (Gamergate for example)
Warring factions settle for an uneasy stalemate where neither party is able to overwhelm the other (??), therefore achieving equilibrium, like in nature (??).
Youtuber C. G. P. Grey “This Video will Make you Angry“ video. A point of symbiosis (homeostasis) is reached “where a super successful symbiotic pair of anger germs [reaches] ecological stability“.
Some memes however are treated as threats and the Social Organism hunts it down like an organism would a bacteria or parasite.
The dentist Walter Palmer who killed Cecil the lion.
#HasJustineLandedYet
Tim Hunt
Author compares this overcorrection with the immune system’s overreactions like allergies.
We need to evolve a more advanced memetic code which does not overreact (?!)
Anti-BLM response has prevented the purge of all the bad cops, yet it behaves very much like an immune response.
Then there are purely hateful memes, such as bullying of Serena Williams, which the author likens to social cancer.
What do we do about it? Again here, we need to evolve the memetic code so that it is more effective at detecting cancer….
Encourage positive uplifting content…
Humans of New York etc
However censorship does not work because it disrupts the metabolic pathways.
Chapter 7: Confronting our pathogens
Example of the refugee debate and how the picture of the drowned boy suddenly made everyone see the truth.
The world is becoming more inclusive.
Through exposure to pathogens we develop the means to fight them.
The argument of the author is that phenomenon like BLM change our collective DNA towards enlightenment.
Chapter 8: Thomas and Teddy
the problem of centralized control over content sharing.
Thomas Jefferson gave us constitutional commitment to the right to self-expression, Teddy Roosevelt gave us the Sherman Antitrust Act to break monopolies.
The problem is that the revenue model for the infrastructure of Social Media is selling ad space.
Ad blocking.
Digital currency micropayments and new ownership model enforced by a blockchain could solve that.
Decentralized social media platform owned by a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization).
Would provide the transparency to conduct audits to sniff out bot farms for example.
Smart contracts: “A simple social media smart contract might respond to someone opening and embedding a particular artist’s work in a tweet, recognizing that act as fulfillment of a condition of the underlying usage agreement, and then irrevoicably transferring an amount from the user’s store of digital currency to the artist“.
Software logic as mathematical key to unlock a response, much like organic agents bind to molecular substrate using a snug lock-and-key structure to release chemical reactions.
The need to design a Cyber-legal system.
League of legends implemented a system of control based on community consensus which resulted in reduced toxicity.
The resulting arbitration mechanism would bleed over to the real world and necessitate cooperation from government authority.
for example with regards to net neutrality.
Internet service should be treated as a public good
Human rights, such as the right to privacy, must also be standardized across nations because of the transnational nature of the Social Organism.
Algorithm transparency.
Chapter 9: Digital culture