Memes and mobs
Memetics is the buzzword nowadays. The idea of an idea being impregnated in the brain and following a trajectory towards its own evolution seems to be interesting but the rationality is debatable. Working on the assumption of ‘survival of the fittest’, we need a formal definition of ‘fit’. Some authors take the example of Beethoven’s fifth symphony and the four notes as being propagated as memes, but they can be classified as gentle and harmless memes, the various anecdotes and fables can also be classified in this category.
What is truly interesting is the nature of memes which are usually in a hibernated state and go full throttle only after reaching a threshold state. I’ll take an example.
Consider the behavior of a lynch mob. Usually consists of people who are as ordinary as you and me. What exactly happens that some harmless fellow beings turn violent all of a sudden? Talking in the Indian context, communal riots have always been a part and parcel of India’s existence. What exactly happens that your next door neighbor turns a murderer? Can external provocation turn humans into animals? Do the violent memes also get passed on? If yes, have they evolved so much that they usually live in your mind as vestigial memes but turn dynamic when they want to?
I call them Vmemes and Dmemes. There is tremendous scope for further research in memetics if we are to consider the group behaviour. A lot many questions need to be asked and answered. I’ll continue reading on the topic and keep my readers armed with any new development.
The article on memetics on Brent Silby’s page. Good read.
Content Productivity System
1 year ago
3 comments:
From the point of view of the meme there is no notion of "bad" or "violent". Memes are simply coded instructions that produce behavior. If the behavior they produce is imitated by other beings, then a copy has occurred and the meme has reproduced.
Some memes reproduce successfully, and some die out. The behavior caused by these memes may be interpreted as bad or violent by us humans because of their effect on us.
Memes that bring about these negative behaviors might be successful reproducers, but they have a short time to copy themselves to other minds. When a criminal is caught, the memes inhabiting his mind have little chance of replication in the outside world. Its kind of like a virus that causes a deadly disease. When it jumps into a host, it has to reproduce and jump into another host quickly before its current host dies.
Hey that was a pretty good article. I wonder if you follow Daniel Dennett's work. There is a very interesting talk given by him at TED on the same matter. Have a look! if you have not so already, i am sure you are going to enjoy it! Pretty old talk now though.
here is the url:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzGjEkp772s
@ Shubhendu
Thanks for the link, I'll surely catch up on him.
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