8 July 2008
Why “Memes” Are Important
Posted by Andrew Garcia under: Cyber Media; Cybernetics; Evolution; Transhumanism .
The study of memetics is a hugely relevent topic in transhumanism. Memes are essentially small pieces of cultural information that can be transmitted from one person to the next. Think genes, but for information.
A solid example of a meme is Rick Rolling. Everyone knows what a rick roll is and it’s almost a viral notion. The rick-roll meme is a piece of information that contains knowledge of the prank, knowledge of Rick Astley and his song “Never Gonna Give You Up” and an awareness that a large number of people also know what Rick Rolling is.
So how is this relevent to Cyborgs?
Abstracting memes is a strong basis for growing as a human being. The more cognizant we are of how we share information, the faster the information can flow and we can streamline the process. This in itself is a technology. I’d go as far as calling it a “metatechnology”.
I like this image a lot because it implies that we live in a world that is more ideas than reality.
This is a similar concept to the internet and is infact the metaphysical analogue to the internet. All those “tubes” and electric sparks are the physical manifestations of billions of concepts/ideas/blogs/pages/abstractions that are transforming our reality.
This, in turn, implies that the internet has become a more fluid version of reality where our memes take on a more real form than they have in our minds.
The interconnectivity becomes apparent which means that the future in human interaction clearly lies in the Internet. The next level is logically to manifest the internet itself back into the real world. My thoughts side with virtual overlays as opposed to neural interaction but who knows what the future holds.
The only thing certain is that memes play a vital role in pushing information evolution, which is clearly tied to human evolution as well. My advice to you:
Produce information. Thirst for information. Then post it here. You’re doing humanity a favor.
And the article from which I stole the picture above is very interesting too.
4 Comments so far...
Dave B. Says:
8 July 2008 at 2:15 pm.
I’m curious about your assertion of a virtual overlay onto the real world. Do you really think that we’ll augment the actual planet with imagery rather than create an entirely new planet that’s 100% virtual (e.g. Second Life)?
FWIW, I see the real world falling into neglect as the virtual world takes off, rather than the two together as a technological ‘movie’ embossed over nature.
Andrew Garcia Says:
8 July 2008 at 2:31 pm.
Thank you for your comment.
It’s my belief that emergent technologies offer a faster route to a physical manifestation of the Internet through overlays or virtual augmentation. While I cannot rule out entirely virtual worlds such as suggested in the Matrix, or a Second Life arcade-like experience, I believe these are simply much further into the future.
One problem with 100% virtual reality is it would almost certainly require neural interfacing. And while the technology may be just around the corner, the willingness of the masses to get “tagged” with a brain chip or a “godcap” is most likely way lower than what we would hope for.
The only technology available today that can create fully immersive 3D environments are psychoactive chemicals. They are unreliable and inefficient in this context.
So it seems most logical to me that with the advent of advanced nanotechnology (for example), people may be walking around in the near future with bots in a pocket…ready to materialize into a virtual arrow giving directions from Google.
This is mere speculation, but I’m a romanticist as a technoprogressive and could only hope for a harmonious technology movie over nature.
Get it in,
Andrew
Alex Weber Says:
10 July 2008 at 12:33 pm.
Good overview of memes… This is something that I wish more people were aware of. I find myself to be like a “bank” of memes, sponging the ones that I like and then spreading them around to my social circle.
2 quick things:
1. What’s the quote source in this article? and is that second quote from the same source? why does it look different?
2. Fix your RSS feed! GAAAAAH!
<3,
Alex
Andrew Garcia Says:
10 July 2008 at 12:42 pm.
Hi Alex,
Thanks for your comment.
The quote source is none other than myself. I believe that the second quote you are referring to (the italicized part under the image?) is merely a statement I wished to draw attention to. Not a quote…but feel free to use it if you’d like.
Re: RSS Feed
I’m trying!!!! It looks like other people have had the errors that I’m getting and there are no responses to the problem.