Memetic Engineering, Memgineering

BY LETTER

The practical application of memetics in order to influence behaviour, especially on a mass-scale.

Developed into a fine art by superbrights and hyperturings as early as the later Information Age and used consistently since. Propaganda and Advertising are crude form of memetic engineering. Some philosophers have observed that memetic engineering raise serious questions in free societies.

Memgineering is rather like advertising and spin-doctoring. First the memgineer learns as much as e can about the target population, and then develop various versions of the meme (likely testing them in simulations and focus groups). Then it is spread it, through advertising, music, network postings, subliminals, memebots, alifes, neogens, new religions, artificial fads, or other means. Real memetic subversion is done by launching many synergetic memes.

Glossary

Memgineer: Meme engineer, Memegeneer. One who consciously devises memes, through meme-splicing and memetic synthesis, with the intent of altering the behavior of others. Writers of manifestos and of commercials are typical memetic engineers.

Auto-Toxic Meme
Countersociomemetics - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Use of Social Psychology and Sociomemetics to reduce the effectiveness of social and memetic conditioning, or even turn the original conditioning into something completely different. An important element of memetic warfare and subversion. Sociomimeticists are either SI:1 or higher, or are SI:<1 sentients with implanted or augmented sociomemetic wetware, software, or firmware.
Cryptomemegineering
Cryptomemetic Index - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
The degree to which an engineered meme cannot be detected, even by conventional memetic analysis. It is based on a complex of factors, most of which are incomprehensible to subsingularitan sophonts.
Infection, Memetic
Institute of Applied and Theoretical Memetics
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:
- Meme Mule,
- Memoid, and
- non-replicating Meme Bug.
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 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.
Retromeme - Text by Glenn Grant
A meme which attempts to splice itself into an existing meme-complex.

Appears in Topics

Memetics

Development Notes

Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 08 December 2001.

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