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Infection, Memetic
Successful encoding of a meme in the memory of a human being. A memetic infection can be either active or inactive. It is inactive if the host does not feel inclined to transmit the meme to other 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 otherwise) 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 transmitted this way.)
Some memeticists have used `infection' as a synonym for `belief' (i.e. only believers are infected, non-believers are not). However, this usage ignores the fact that people often transmit memes they do not "believe in." Songs, jokes, and fantasies are memes which do not rely on "belief" as an infection strategy.
Some memeticists have used `infection' as a synonym for `belief' (i.e. only believers are infected, non-believers are not). However, this usage ignores the fact that people often transmit memes they do not "believe in." Songs, jokes, and fantasies are memes which do not rely on "belief" as an infection strategy.
Related Articles
- Membot, Memebot
- Meme
- Meme Bug - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A sentient being modified to memetically infect higher toposophics. May be malicious or harmless. Meme Bugs are usually subsapient, but there are also sapient and even transapient variants. Their whole purpose is tied up with carrying the meme and infecting the target. Some types of Madverts are Meme Bugs that have been reversed engineered and given a different payload. - Meme Mule - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A type of memenger, a sophont modified to transport memes from one place to another, but who is not aware of the purpose of the memes e carries. Often the memes are of a higher toposophic level than the mule emself. While having a strong sense of duty and service to the transapient or archailect on whose behalf they are transporting the memes, Meme Mules are not themselves affected by the memes they carry. They may unload the memes via docking stations (DNI upload), or even through their unconscious actions may trigger the desired responses in the target society or environment. - Meme Pool - Text by Glenn Grant
The full diversity of memes accessible to a culture or individual. Learning languages and traveling are methods of expanding one's meme pool. - Meme-Allergy - Text by Glenn Grant
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-allergies on their hosts. Often, the actual meme-allergens need not be present, but merely perceived to be present, to trigger a reaction. Common meme-allergies include homophobia, paranoid anti-Communism, and porno phobia. Common forms of meme-allergic reaction are censorship, vandalism, belligerent verbal abuse, and physical violence. - Meme-complex, Memeplex - Text by Glenn Grant
Also sometimes called a memeticity. A set of mutually-assisting memes which have co-evolved a symbiotic relationship. Religious and political dogmas, social movements, artistic styles, traditions and customs, chain letters, paradigms, languages, and so on are meme-complexes. Types of co-memes commonly found in a scheme are called the: bait; hook; threat; and vaccine. A successful scheme commonly has certain attributes: wide scope (a paradigm that explains much); opportunity for the carriers to participate and contribute; conviction of its self-evident truth (carries Authority); offers order and a sense of place, helping to stave off the dread of meaninglessness. - Memegeneer
- Memenger - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
(Pronounced Me men jer.) A meme messenger; a sophont that acts like messenger RNA in transmitting memetic instructions from one society, polity, habitat, or civilization to another, as part of the message transmission within the ecology of an archailect. Usually the message is transmitted once, there is no replication or virus like behavior (unlike memetic infectors. Depending on the target population, a memenger may be biont, cyborg, artificial (vec, aioid, ai, etc), or virtual.
Among the many types of memengers are: - Memetacorp, Metacorp - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Not a corporation, but an "instructor" or "controller" that through memetic association or template that organises a number of corporations. Memetocorps are almost all transapient run and organised (often a metemtocorp is simply a transapient, or a group or loose association of such), and their suggestions and modus operandi can appear completely paradoxical, ridiculous, even counter-productive, to ordinary sapients. Nevertheless, they get results, often in the most unexpected way. - Memeter
- Memetic Art - Text by Anders Sandberg
Crafting skillful memes, spreading them into society. Partially a form of hacking, partially storytelling the form also has a somewhat competitive aspect. - Memetic Demons
- Memetic Drift - Text by Glenn Grant
Accumulated mis-replications; the rate of memetic mutation or evolution. Recorded data tend to slow the memetic drift of dogmas. - Memetic Engineering, Memgineering
- Memetic Infector - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A sapient being used to infect societies or communities with a particular memeset. Memetic infectors resemble ordinary sophonts, but may differ psychologically, often having fanatical or one-sided enthusiasm for the meme-plex they are carrying. Infectors may be replicators (viruses) or non-replicators (memengers). - Memetic Self-replicating Swarm
- Memetic Totems
- Memetic War - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A war of ideology and persuasion rather than weaponry or military might. Most transapients and archai uses memetics when dealing with lower toposophics and subsingulitaritans, few resort to anything as crude as actual hardware or software weaponry. Examples of memetic warriors might be PR agents, priest, poets, empaths. - Memeticity - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A coherent aggregation of component memes that itself constitutes a larger meme. Philosophies, ideologies, worldviews, and religions are all memeticities. An alternative and somewhat more common term for memeticity is memeplex. - Memetoselection - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
The process whereby memes are favoured or selected against, according to darwinian mechanisms that favour the strongest memes. Memetoselection may be natural or artificial. - Memex - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
A meme designer expert system. Developed from the original advertising and marketing support systems of the Information Age into a sophisticated tool for memetic manipulation during the Solsys and Interstellar Eras. - Memicry - Text by Glenn Grant
An infection strategy in which a meme attempts to imitate the semiotics of another successful meme. Such as: pseudo-science, pseudo-rebelliousness, subversion by forgery, etc. - Memoid
- Memotype - Text by Glenn Grant
[1] The actual information-content of a meme, as distinct from its sociotype.
[2] A class of similar memes. - Multipart Memetic Assault
Appears in Topics
Development Notes
Text by Glenn Grant
Initially published on 31 December 2007.
Initially published on 31 December 2007.
