Thought Contagion

Thought Contagion: How belief spreads through society (the new science of memes)

Aaron Lynch, 1996

It is written that Lynch’s Thought Contagion theory was developed independently of Dawkin’s Memetics theory: "Lynch claimed to have conceived his theory totally independently of any contact with academics in the cultural evolutionary sphere, and apparently was not even aware of Dawkins' The Selfish Gene until his book was very close to publication." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memetics

“Man is what he believes” – Anton Chekhov

A thought contagion is a self-propagating idea (similar to Dawkin’s Selfish Gene)

People-acquiring ideas

Vs.

Ideas-acquiring people

Memetics is just the evolution of ideas (each one like a species), post-genes

Passive adaptation, natural, cultural mind viruses

Vs.

Thought contagion, artificial, designer mind viruses

“…having more thought contagions [in a society] may accelerate the brain’s evolution for capacities for memetic immunity, pushing it towards more sophisticated levels of cultural capacity. (p25)

Lynch taking from Evolutionary Biologist Richard Dawkins’ sociobiological book The Selfish Gene:

-Genetic replicator theory: living organisms are the “machines” that genes use to copy themselves into new organisms

-Genes are self-copying information bundles in a storage medium of organic molecules

“Divine Law Enforcement”

Memetic History: Little People and Big People

Memetics’s focus on beliefs as replicators can likewise give short shrift to prominent people. To multiple aggressively memes must affect large numbers of people with in similar ways. But most of any large crowd consists of “little people” so the theory ca not ignore them in favor of prominent people.

Even in its focus on “little people”, memetics pays disproportionate attention to our more benign and unsophisticated communications. The seemingly little events of communication greatly outnumber the big ones and are easier to imitate. So they play an important role in mass movements.

The best replicators command retransmitting behaviors from adherents great and small, over wide areas, and across long time spans. Prominent figure may do more meme spreading per person, but the common fold often account for most of a meme’s replication through their sheer number. (p38)

[And so it should be reinforced here, that in order for the ‘common folk’ to replicate the meme, it must be easy to imitate, otherwise, they will either not do it at all, or do it wrong. In order for a meme to survive, it must be copied with some degree of fidelity.]

‘Be Fruitful and Multiply’ and ‘Religion’: Meme Synergy

This meme, “be fruitful and multiply”, replicates through history in its natural, logical way (those who exercise the meme have more offspring, by way of the meme itself, accelerating the rate of propagation). When the powerhouse ‘Religion’ meme reaches supreme authority, ‘be fruitful…’ slips right in and explodes on the population. The two memes work together, strengthening each other’s chances of survival by the nature of each meme in itself. (see p100)

Conclusion

Memetics should reach its genetic-equivalent of evolutionary biology as a mature theory.

As one of the most powerful forces of nature, the evolution of replicating entities by natural selection extends beyond biology, having newfound importance in the origin of beliefs. Where once we had thought our origins above nature, we now know the humble truth of biological evolution. Where once we had thought our beliefs and values above the laws of nature, we increasingly know them, too, as the outcomes of natural selection. [note the parallel to Kahler’s work regarding the shifting role of divine creator to moral guardian as evidenced in the history of the "inward turn of the narrative" – Llynch is suggesting that even this position is now being usurped.]

In every corner of our lives…thought contagions live with us and in us, telling us how. (p173)

The Inward Turn of the Narrative

Erich Kahler

1970 (German), 1973 (English trans: Richard and Clara Winston, Princeton U. Press)

“Erich Kahler’s view of the modern world is “the steady evolution of consciousness in the direction of the demythification and secularization of wider and wider areas of human life”.

-Joseph Frank in the forward, p ix-x

[…he continues…]

The part of mankind living in advanced industrial society “has thus become detached from the ancient certainties provided by religion and cultural tradition; it lives mentally and physically in a universe it has not yet learned how to assimilate emotionally. The spiritual crisis of the modern era is precisely this gap between the mind of the human species and its psyche”.

Literary history as the history of consciousness (preface, p3):

“The evolution of artistic forms of expression is one of the most important evidences we have for the changes in man’s consciousness and the changes in the structure of his world.”

The Denaturing of Nature (preface, p6):

The individual, by conscious objectification of reality, denatures nature.

The Nature of Narrative

from the very first sentence of ‘Part One’

Initially, the process of internalization of narrative consists in gradually bringing the narrated material down to earth and breathing into it a human soul. Narrative begins with cosmogonies and theogonies. Slowly, then, the themes descend to the level of annals and chronicles, to the recording of earthly events.

CHRONOLOGY

Early Occidental Epics (Homer)

-representing “complex elaborations and reshapings of real happenings”

-mingling myth and history, not mere fictions, i.e. not pure invention

-reproducing believed realities

-mythic, heroic human

“The biblical kings and prophets are not invented fictional characters; they are historical figures, though somewhat distorted by the narrative, for narrative always distorts.” (p54) [ref: Big Fish film]

“[They] are not fictional characters…they were not created for the sake of symbolizing, for the sake of meaning; they are the actors in real events, or events believed to be real…If we feel that they represent certain universal human attitudes, we are responding to a naïve symbolism which the authors were unconscious.” (p55)

Christian Influence

-deliberate, imposed meaning

Renaissance Influence

-collapse of Holy Roman Empire and feudal hierarchy/Roman Catholic Church/Christian Cosmos:

“Emperor, Pope, and Divine Ruler of the Universe as single unified power lost their claims to unlimited hegemony. God was displaced by human reason; knowledge derived from faith shattered by empiricism…Men began themselves to observe nature directly… This was the beginning of natural science” (p35)

[The displacement of God by human reason is a getting-rid-of the Great Middleman. He is disregarded; change is affected directly, by the individual.]

Renaissance Influence

-dawning of individual consciousness

“When the acceptance of supernatural authority is shaken and each individual begins to act entirely on his own responsibility, the secretiveness, caution, and a close watch on the conduct and character of other individuals becomes essential.” (p21)

“One’s fellow man, as well as one’s own inner life, become objects of conscious observation.” (p21)

Fiction at Last

-Don Quixote, first modern novel

-(new) ascending symbolism vs. (old) descending symbolism

“[^]…proceeds not from a supernatural, extrahuman, or prehuman event whose reality is assumed, but because it rises from below, from a purely human natural world, from individual characters and events which from the outset possess only a representative, not an actual reality. In fact, then have been invented by the artists for the sake of this representation.” (p57)

“To the creators of the new symbolism there is no pre-existence, no premise outside the work itself. The whole symbolic structure is built up by the artist; it is entirely integrated. This complete integration is internalization. ” Nothing more is imposed, “The whole world is now inside the artist.” (p58)

1700’s: Reciprocal Creation of Consciousness and Reality

From the 1700’s on, “A new intertwining of inner and outer life began, within the onset of a more developed consciousness. … The interpenetration of consciousness and reality, and the accelerating interaction between the two, have greatly complicated the two.” (p75)

“For the first time, then, then actual process of change is drenched with ideas, permeated by the products of consciousness.” (p69)

“Conditions become far more important than actions; dealing with them in a practical way demands abstraction. … The stuff which becomes the object of the artistic consciousness, and thus of the narrator’s consciousness – the sheer raw material of reality – is no longer a merely physical or even psychological primal substance.” (p70)

“Nature for the first time becomes an independent object of reality” (p75)

[footnote] “As was the case with the development of perspective, the graphic arts took the lead here. During the Renaissance, Altodorfer and Durer painted the first landscapes devoid of human figures.”

-technology as “the systematization and practical application of scientific results”, “strews abstractions throughout the whole field of reality”

The First Description of a Thunderstorm

--“Die auf ein starkes Ungewitter erfolgte Stille”, or “The Silence After a Thunderstorm”, by Brockes, 1735, translated in Winston’s Narrative

“…Apogee of the transfer from mystical imbuement of nature to cold, analytical, categorical description.” (p84)

“The creator was inadvertently removed from creation, his presence remained, however, as the guardian of morality.” (p89)

The ‘New English Novel’

-began in 1719 with Daniel DeFoe’s Robinson Crusoe, he describes it himself as “homely, plain writing”

-first use of naturalistic language in the history of the narrative

-“Defoe’s naturalistic exactitude is mean to reinforce the credibility of the story.” (p93)

Kahler lists a “variety of fresh motives” introduced in this phase:

-scientific empiricism

-puritan moral scruples

-bourgeoisie’s attentiveness to material things

-overseas exploration w accompanying emphasis on description

-middle class hunger for ‘true history’, in the light of which the narrator must strive harder to achieve credibility

-The development of science in the 1600-1700, the telescope and the microscope, brought about a metaphysical insecurity (later Kahler references Gulliver’s Travels in this context)

1700’S

Gulliver’s Travels, Marivaux’s Vie de Marianne, Rousseau’s Confessions

-satire served as an expression of revolt or a vehicle of moralistic intention and conversely [DeFoe’s] didactic intention sometimes served as a pretext for dwelling upon prohibited subjects

-first-person narrative becomes semi-autobiographical

-the modern dilemma of the artist

-transformation of readership and narrator and the relationship between the two

-the audience becomes less easily satisfired and a new strategy is required to hold the reader

-the new inwardly coherent narrative demanded concentrated attention. This develops a more intimate relationship (btw narrator and reader).

[I am not sure what Kahler is saying anymore; here are a couple snippets.]

-an artificial aloofness where the real narrator interposes a fictional intermediary between narrator and subject [and in footnote 29, p175] making the story more convincing by objectifying it

-Broch on “The Death of Virgil”: “It’s really no longer readable”

-The narrator is now addressing an imaginary recipient.

Emotinym

emoticon (emotional-connotation) + acronym (Greek akros - 'tip', Greek onoma - 'name'), ex: lol, omg, smh, etc...

early 21st century, global english

These word-things (lol, omg, smh, etc...) are used to add a specific emotion to the speaker of the text in the same way that emoticons are used. They are a text-based emoticon, taking the form of an acronym. Emotinyms function more as punctuation (emoticons) than as words (acronyms). Emotinyms are not intended to be spoken aloud, reinforcing their status as punctuation. "Smh-ing" and "lolling", however, are word-forms of emotinyms.

Post-Script:

As it is more punctuation than word, 'lol' is not meant to be spoken out loud.


Post-Post:
Run a search for the word emotinym, and to only result remotely relevant to the idea here is found here:
Let's mix acronyms and emoticons to make emotinyms.For example, LOL=?ö? would be "laughing out loud at a moth".
25 Jan 12 - Benjamin Judge @benjamin judge

Notice, especially, the date of the posts are within 2 days of each other.
(this post originally written on 23 Jan 12)

DDoS

On the equality of weapons-power between the state and its people, and referring specifically to the French and American Revolutions, Ernest Gellner in his dense book of human history, says it will never happen that way again. The citizens themselves were armed with the same weapons as their overseers. Following the world-wars, it became obvious that the citizens would never again match the firepower of their governing apparatus (p237).

But to Gellner, it now must be noted:

DDoS. This argument has become invalid.

Plough, Sword, and Book. Ernest Gellner, 1988. U. of Chicago Press.

Adinkras: Using Beauty to Find the Truth Uncovers a Disturbing Reality

"Our sense of aesthetics is a valuable tool in guiding us to finding theories that are effectively accurate descriptions of nature."

(Dr. S. James Gates, at 9 minutes, video linked below)

Dr. S. James Gates and his colleagues are using a term, Adinkras, to refer to visual representations that interpret, and offer manipulability to, the theoretical physical laws of supersymmetry transformations.

^This image is taken from a section, "Adinkra Folding", in the paper linked below, and shows the 'adinkras' (which represent ~a set of mathematical information) being transformed visually. The results of these visual transformations can then be re-interpreted back into mathematical information.

^This image is a complex set of supersymmetry equations.

In itself, this intersection between art and science is a dream-come-true for those living on the precipitous edge of reality that cuts through these two diametrically-opposed worlds. What Gates and his group go on to postulate further, however, is much, much more staggering. Halfway through the video linked below, Gates reports that he has found (error correcting) computer codes within the equations generated by the "adinkra technique". To repeat, for effect: Gates states to have found computer code within the equations of fundamental physics.

Dream or Reality? You be the judge.

excerpts from paper linked below:

ABSTRACT

We present a symbolic method for organizing the representation theory of one-dimensional superalgebras. This relies on special objects, which we have called adinkra symbols, which supply tangible geometric forms to the still-emerging mathematical basis underlying supersymmetry.

INTRODUCTION

There are important examples in which theoretical physics incorporates elegant motifs to represent mathematical conceptions that are vastly simplified thereby. One such example is the wide-spread use of Feynman diagrams. Another one of these is Salam-Strathdee superspace, a stalwart construction which has proven most helpful in organizing fundamental notions in field theory and in string theory. Despite its successes, however, there are vexing limitations which bedevil attempts to use this latter construction to understand certain yet-mysterious aspects of off-shell supersymmetry. This situation would seemingly benefit from an improved organizational scheme. In this paper, we introduce a graphical paradigm which shows some promise in providing a new symbolic technology for usefully re-conceptualizing problems in supersymmetric representation theory.

The use of symbols to connote ideas which defy simple verbalization is perhaps one of the oldest of human traditions. The Asante people of West Africa have long been accustomed to using simple yet elegant motifs known as Adinkra symbols, to serve just this purpose. With a nod to this tradition, we christen our graphical symbols as “Adinkras.”

Adinkras: A Graphical Technology for Supersymmetric Representation Theory

Michael Faux and S. J. Gates, Jr

July 2004

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/hep-th/pdf/0408/0408004v1.pdf

"Does Reality Have a Genetic Basis?"

S. James Gates Jr. at the Perimeter Institute, posted by The Ontario Educational Communications Authority (TVO)

[There is no date on the video, but it is assumed here to be circa 2009.]

http://ww3.tvo.org/video/164065/s-james-gates-jr-does-reality-have-genetic-basis

Absolute Zero

In a recent article published regarding information storage at the atomic scale, a single statement alludes to the superiority of computing in absolute zero vs. room temperature.

New Storage Device Is Very Small, at 12 Atoms
JOHN MARKOFF
January 12, 2012

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/science/smaller-magnetic-materials-push-boundaries-of-nanotechnology.html

Via this, it can be easily imagined that the future of computing will take place in absolute zero. Consequently, these computers will be either on the moon or in earth’s orbit. Following the latter, and considering a time in a few decades when we become inextricably linked with this technology, we will, in a sense, and perhaps more than that, exist in this aggregate of satellite-computers, having freed ourselves from Earth’s gravity. We could call this The Anthroposphere – a physical sphere that surrounds the earth and yet contains us within it.

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just an update...

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The Pirate Bay Blog, 03.18.2012

With the development of GPS controlled drones, far-reaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we're going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. A real act of war.

We're just starting so we haven't figured everything out yet. But we can't limit ourselves to hosting things just on land anymore. These Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) are just the first attempt. With modern radio transmitters we can get over 100Mbps per node up to 50km away. For the proxy system we're building, that's more than enough.

http://thepiratebay.se/blog/210

Electronic Countermeasures @ GLOW Festival NL 2011 from liam young on Vimeo.

In the skies above the city a drone flock drifts into formation broadcasting their local file sharing network. Part nomadic infrastructure and part robotic swarm they form a pirate internet, an aerial napster, darting between the buildings....

Today we are much closer to our virtual community than we are to our real neighbours. This death of distance has created new forms of city based around ephemeral digital connections rather than physical geography. The infrastructure that drove the development of the city was once large permanent networks of roads, plumbing and park spaces but are now nomadic digital networks, orbiting GPS satellites and cloud computing connections.

Drones, Caves, and Toilets: When Data Centers Go Rogue
Caleb Garling, July 6, 2012 

Oregon-based Server Sky wants to build data centers in space — and power them with the sun.

“Integrating power generation and computing in space can greatly reduce the materials and manufacturing needed to deploy and power a data center,” Keith Lofstrom, Server Sky’s director, tells Wired. “Delivering computation from space, Server Sky can focus on cities, villages, even small companies poised for rapid growth, without having to deploy and maintain nationwide communication and electricity infrastructure.”

On Photography, The Collective, and Street Art

C215, talkin bout street art:

I usually don't like to paint on blank surfaces and prefer to paint on neglected surfaces with a maximum of layers of posters, tags or advertising...then we can feel the time and interaction with people who passed by and left a sign on the wall, a visual history we've all set up together: if street art exists, it would be precisely this collective visual poetry of human beings, and not only artists, that are gathering together in the streets, constantly evolving. The city is the real street artist, not you alone. Never. And at the end, you need again someone else to open their eyes and put the stress on this poetry including your work. Street photographers are a very big part of the process.

juxtapoz nov 2011 no 130 p85