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Undertoad · 07-27-2001, 02:10 PM

The whole concept of "memes" fascinates me.

A meme (pronounced "meem") is any idea, but the term refers to the state of ideas as viruses. Ideas and thoughts and concepts get spread from brain to brain. If they are seen as important, maybe even critical to survival, they are spread more rapidly.

Of course, some ideas are true and some false. Some are stated as hypothesis and eventually get taken as true. Some eventually get written into books as truth.

We need a new word for "false memes": ideas being spread that are provably false. Or if not objectively false, at least have some fictional grounding. The strength of the false meme could be stated as the percent of people in a culture who believe the idea even though it is wrong.

What popular ideas are false? There are a ton of them, obviously. Political, cultural, scientific, social, could be just about anything.

How about "Being shown on TV makes you special." Probably 90% believe this to be true, and this accounts for the ridiculous hand waving and "hi mom" behavior whenever a TV camera is pointed at a crowd. The camera leaves, everyone there feels like something important just happened, but anyone actually seeing their face on TV will not remember them as anything but another moronic hand-waver.

"Half of marriages end in divorce." Probably 95% believe it. The divorce rate is actually much lower. Sorry I don't have a cite.

"Cell phones cause cancer." Well no. But this idea may fade away, just as "Green magic marker around the edge of a CD makes it sound better" was widely believed only for about 6 months or so.

What else do people have wrong?

07-27-2001, 02:10 PM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	What do people have wrong? The whole concept of "memes" fascinates me. A meme (pronounced "meem") is any idea, but the term refers to the state of ideas as viruses. Ideas and thoughts and concepts get spread from brain to brain. If they are seen as important, maybe even critical to survival, they are spread more rapidly. Of course, some ideas are true and some false. Some are stated as hypothesis and eventually get taken as true. Some eventually get written into books as truth. We need a new word for "false memes": ideas being spread that are provably false. Or if not objectively false, at least have some fictional grounding. The strength of the false meme could be stated as the percent of people in a culture who believe the idea even though it is wrong. What popular ideas are false? There are a ton of them, obviously. Political, cultural, scientific, social, could be just about anything. How about "Being shown on TV makes you special." Probably 90% believe this to be true, and this accounts for the ridiculous hand waving and "hi mom" behavior whenever a TV camera is pointed at a crowd. The camera leaves, everyone there feels like something important just happened, but anyone actually seeing their face on TV will not remember them as anything but another moronic hand-waver. "Half of marriages end in divorce." Probably 95% believe it. The divorce rate is actually much lower. Sorry I don't have a cite. "Cell phones cause cancer." Well no. But this idea may fade away, just as "Green magic marker around the edge of a CD makes it sound better" was widely believed only for about 6 months or so. What else do people have wrong?