Memetic Self-replicating Swarm
Self replicating swarm of entities dedicated to converting as much of the universe as possible into copies of itself by memetic, persuasive, and/or evangelical means.
Also known as Persuasive, Evangelical or Campaigning Swarm.
Examples
Most expansive or persuasive human empires can be loosely classed as biont (or hybrid) memetic swarms.
Examples from Old Earth include American Cultural Imperialism (McDonald's in China, etc.) in late 20th and early 21st century, Christian missionaries in Africa or India or Pakistan, Islamic missionaries in Africa or SE Asia.
Terragen empires such as Cygexpa, The Negentropy Alliance and the Solar Dominion. Aioid examples include The Emple-dok-cetics, the Metasoft Version Tree (including operating system).
- Aggressive Self-replicating Swarm
- Goo
- 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.
- Memetic Demons
- 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 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.
- Monopathic Swarm - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Blight-like distributed entities trying to expand, disregarding the wishes and rights of other sentients.
Although this is sometimes used as a pejorative against expansive empires, it properly refers only to homogeneous swarms. monopathic swarms might be both intelligent and non-intelligent.