Suhweet Jesus it's been a while. Almost a year to the day to be precise. What have I being doing during this void? Parenting, careering, expanding my mind (not pharmaceutically). I'm not even going to bother to review my previous ramblings. It's another year, I'll be 36 at the end of the month and the weather is taking a turn for the wonderfully allergenic after a fairly annoying winter full of horrid mood swings. I'm in a love/hate with Mama Nature and her bitchiness.
Anyway, to the point of this collection of alphanumeric characters:
Twitter + Facebook = insta-connection with everything you didn't want, but that you now somehow can't do without.
Twitter fills my phone with de-mystifying, de-deifying celebrity jibber jabber via txt msgs. To be fair, these folks don't have the luxury of inline spell check and grammatical advice, but holy crap are some of our more empirically prized celebrity citizens stupid.
Not these folks however. This is my current stable of tweet heads:
@Jon_Favreau - filming "Iron Man 2" in LA (directing, writing and acting)and adjusting to new sleep cycles.
@ThatKevinSmith - filming "A Couple of Dicks" in NYC (directing) and rabidly following the Devs cup run.
@tonyhawk - returning from family vacation in Mexico and points south.
@robcorddry - a funny guy.
@rainnwilson - another funny guy.
@THE_REAL_SHAQ - pandering to Oprah's new found twitteriness (fucking lame).
@rustyrockets - shameless self promotion with some pretty weak forced humor('bout to be unfollowed).
Facebook - glorious time waster, but not in an uber bad way. Seems to have decent security. I can feed it pics, 'thoughts', and videos from my mobile phone and while online I can directly interact with my 19 friends (since joining 4 days ago) that are currently scattered in places like Taiwan, Leeds, Vancouver, Montreal.. the list goes on. Most of it is fairly impersonal chatter via comments on pics or thoughts, but I do have 6 threads going with folks I hadn't talked to in 15+ years. I haven't even begun to scour the user base, and 6 of my 19 friendlies found me within 48 hours of signing up. Each day sees new or expanded conversations, more friend requests and recommendations along with the discovery of 'applications' that can be added to the facebook account to keep you there (hence the nickname 'crackbook'). Things like games, surveys, quizzes, and other generally benign time suckers litter the landscape and are 'just one click away'..
I've never been further removed from the people I'm so well connected with, or is it the other way around?
Friday, April 17, 2009
Monday, April 21, 2008
Lowest Common Denominator - At Their Mercy
I'd hardly say this is a purely objective view, but it's certainly becoming a popular one (finally). In fact, Obama recently hit on it and while he was initially admonished for actually saying what he was thinking (correctly I will add), as people wake up and open their eyes, he's now actually being praised and surging polls are suggesting that he's outclassed Hilary.
Here's a portion of Obama's speech given last week:
-->
But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
<--
Initially people freaked out, citing his choice of words completely incorrectly and out of context (per usual), but under further review they realized he was referring simply to people being so jaded to the usual crap that they default to, from their perspective their only clear and present choices - religion, guns and voting against the people who are smarter/different than they are and those best equipped to run the country out of spite. This has happened before, leading up to the last 8 years of abysmal leadership by baby Bush and his gang of criminally negligent and incompetent staffers. Cast aside all relevant issues and focus on.. (coin toss).. abortion, and then gay marriage. Purely inconsequential issues that somehow trumped the economy, the environment, the war and hundreds of more important issues. Next of course will be immigration, with a polarization that promises to get the gun toters out to the booths in record number.
So, this as much a hopeful note as it is a slap on the back of the head to the lowest common denominator that ushered in baby Bush and his cronies. Wake up, read, listen and vote the issues (you'll notice that's plural), and not the contrived, manufactured inconsequential bullshit. I'd even go so far as to say put your money where your mouth is.. but wait, did I forget to mention the pathfinders, trailblazers, firestarters, scout leaders, foot rubbers, democracy rapists, croneys, talentless short cutters and jackasses?
Talk about dishearterning:
-->
But the McCain campaign, which struggled over much of the past year in raising money, is now seeking to emulate the record-setting money machine that powered George W. Bush to victories in 2000 and 2004, bestowing special titles upon bundlers who exceed certain financial targets.
Instead of Pioneers and Rangers, as Bush's top fund-raisers were called, McCain is dubbing the 73 people so far who have brought in $100,000 or more Trailblazers, while the 33 who brought in $250,000 or more are being called Innovators.
Campaign finance watchdogs criticized the Pioneer and Ranger system for establishing an elite class of donors, many of whom went on to ambassadorships and other political appointments. But McCain's advisers believe the system offers the best chance to encourage as many people as possible to raise large amounts of money for the campaign.
McCain has distantly trailed both Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in fund-raising - in March he brought in $15 million, compared with Obama's $40 million and Clinton's $20 million. While McCain's Democratic counterparts, especially Obama, have enjoyed much success in harvesting small-dollar donations over the Internet, McCain has not built an effective Internet fund-raising machine, forcing him to depend on a circle of wealthy donors
<--
Ahh, GW - where haven't you gone wrong? The answer is simple: you pandered to the lowest common denominator and were dumb enough for that group to feel like you'd be a cool guy to go drink with and you wouldn't make them feel stupid (at all). The only refinement you were missing: You wouldn't have had to steal Florida if you had no teeth.
Will the ignorant LCD masses wise up this time around? Time will tell. My fingers are crossed.
Here's a portion of Obama's speech given last week:
-->
But the truth is, is that, our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there's not evidence of that in their daily lives. You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
<--
Initially people freaked out, citing his choice of words completely incorrectly and out of context (per usual), but under further review they realized he was referring simply to people being so jaded to the usual crap that they default to, from their perspective their only clear and present choices - religion, guns and voting against the people who are smarter/different than they are and those best equipped to run the country out of spite. This has happened before, leading up to the last 8 years of abysmal leadership by baby Bush and his gang of criminally negligent and incompetent staffers. Cast aside all relevant issues and focus on.. (coin toss).. abortion, and then gay marriage. Purely inconsequential issues that somehow trumped the economy, the environment, the war and hundreds of more important issues. Next of course will be immigration, with a polarization that promises to get the gun toters out to the booths in record number.
So, this as much a hopeful note as it is a slap on the back of the head to the lowest common denominator that ushered in baby Bush and his cronies. Wake up, read, listen and vote the issues (you'll notice that's plural), and not the contrived, manufactured inconsequential bullshit. I'd even go so far as to say put your money where your mouth is.. but wait, did I forget to mention the pathfinders, trailblazers, firestarters, scout leaders, foot rubbers, democracy rapists, croneys, talentless short cutters and jackasses?
Talk about dishearterning:
-->
But the McCain campaign, which struggled over much of the past year in raising money, is now seeking to emulate the record-setting money machine that powered George W. Bush to victories in 2000 and 2004, bestowing special titles upon bundlers who exceed certain financial targets.
Instead of Pioneers and Rangers, as Bush's top fund-raisers were called, McCain is dubbing the 73 people so far who have brought in $100,000 or more Trailblazers, while the 33 who brought in $250,000 or more are being called Innovators.
Campaign finance watchdogs criticized the Pioneer and Ranger system for establishing an elite class of donors, many of whom went on to ambassadorships and other political appointments. But McCain's advisers believe the system offers the best chance to encourage as many people as possible to raise large amounts of money for the campaign.
McCain has distantly trailed both Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in fund-raising - in March he brought in $15 million, compared with Obama's $40 million and Clinton's $20 million. While McCain's Democratic counterparts, especially Obama, have enjoyed much success in harvesting small-dollar donations over the Internet, McCain has not built an effective Internet fund-raising machine, forcing him to depend on a circle of wealthy donors
<--
Ahh, GW - where haven't you gone wrong? The answer is simple: you pandered to the lowest common denominator and were dumb enough for that group to feel like you'd be a cool guy to go drink with and you wouldn't make them feel stupid (at all). The only refinement you were missing: You wouldn't have had to steal Florida if you had no teeth.
Will the ignorant LCD masses wise up this time around? Time will tell. My fingers are crossed.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Super Simple Time Filler
..an interesting concept when looking for something to intellectually process while otherwise held corporally captive. Flights, commutes, conference calls, meetings and the like all qualify as ideal times to mess around with intersections.
I propose (or maybe even hypothesize) that any two ideas/objects eventually intersect if you push them around long enough. Let's call it the inescapable voyage to the lowest common denominator which occasionally results in something useful theory. Take for example: cup holders and chewing gum , an available USB port and too much time, or even a website and a lot of poorly thought out ideas.
So. Free brain processing time plus the catalog of crap you've been exposed to that is still rattling around in your brain and the concept of merging them together in pairs, one at a time until you come up with something: funny, ridiculous, useful, wasteful, marketable or simply interesting. I find it helps to pick one interesting idea or object and bump as many other ideas or objects against it until something decent comes out.
A notepad and google (plus a random letter or combination of letters) can add a whole new element to the process. Add alcohol for worse results.
I guess it could also be called 'captive creations', or 'poor man's data mining', or even 'here's what I came up with during our last business meeting that is completely unrelated to what was discussed'.
A random personal few from my last meeting:
poker fishing - I didn't say these were good, merely random.
basic competency testing printed on dollar bills - must be answered before redemption, wrong answer = exploding bill.
*vending machine, martinis, home pregnancy kits - weekend hangout
air horn and obscenities - really, really loud obscenities
* a triple inspired by being forced to listen to a co-worker's ramblings that sent my brain off on a tear about what her social life must be like.
I propose (or maybe even hypothesize) that any two ideas/objects eventually intersect if you push them around long enough. Let's call it the inescapable voyage to the lowest common denominator which occasionally results in something useful theory. Take for example: cup holders and chewing gum , an available USB port and too much time, or even a website and a lot of poorly thought out ideas.
So. Free brain processing time plus the catalog of crap you've been exposed to that is still rattling around in your brain and the concept of merging them together in pairs, one at a time until you come up with something: funny, ridiculous, useful, wasteful, marketable or simply interesting. I find it helps to pick one interesting idea or object and bump as many other ideas or objects against it until something decent comes out.
A notepad and google (plus a random letter or combination of letters) can add a whole new element to the process. Add alcohol for worse results.
I guess it could also be called 'captive creations', or 'poor man's data mining', or even 'here's what I came up with during our last business meeting that is completely unrelated to what was discussed'.
A random personal few from my last meeting:
poker fishing - I didn't say these were good, merely random.
basic competency testing printed on dollar bills - must be answered before redemption, wrong answer = exploding bill.
*vending machine, martinis, home pregnancy kits - weekend hangout
air horn and obscenities - really, really loud obscenities
* a triple inspired by being forced to listen to a co-worker's ramblings that sent my brain off on a tear about what her social life must be like.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
The Singularity - The pinnacle of evolution
Oh, where to begin. Perhaps here:
There are singularity conferences now, and singularity journals. There has been a congressional report about confronting the challenges of the singularity, and late last year there was a meeting at the NASA Ames Research Center to explore the establishment of a singularity university. The meeting was called by Peter Diamandis, who established the X Prize. Attendees included senior government researchers from NASA, a noted Silicon Valley venture capitalist, a pioneer of private space exploration, and two computer scientists from Google.
So what exactly is the singularity? In essence (and in my simple words), the singularity is the date after which biological limitations are no more. There's a feeling out there (backed by the like of the above quote) that near the middle of this century technology will enable to immortalization of human consciousness. Even simpler? The belief is that artificial intelligences will be created in such a fashion that they will assist humans cheat death. AI's that fight disease, repair organs and reverse aging, you name it.
This concept (oddly religious in nature) has not only been validated by more than a rare few 'mids' out there, it has actually become a social movement. One of it's biggest proponents is Ray Kurzweil. Here's a little about him:
In his childhood, Kurzweil was a technical prodigy. Before he turned 13, he'd fashioned telephone relays into a calculating device that could find square roots. At 14, he wrote software that analyzed statistical deviance; the program was distributed as standard equipment with the new IBM 1620. As a teenager, he cofounded a business that matched high school students with colleges based on computer evaluation of a mail-in questionnaire. He sold the company to Harcourt, Brace & World in 1968 for $100,000 plus royalties and had his first small fortune while still an undergraduate at MIT.
It goes on and on, but you get the idea. He thinks differently and with more focus on exponential evolution rather than linear, which is the key in this kind of forward thinking. He's a bright dude. He's penned a couple books on the subject: "The Singularity is Near" and "The Age of Spiritual Machines', neither of which I've read but they're on the list.
Statements like this make me think of old Walt's and The Duke's bodies shivering away in some deep freeze hoping for eventual salvation:
The doctor charges $6,000 per appointment, and wealthy singularitarians from all over the world visit him to plan their leap into the future.
Yes, there's a doctor in Denver who sees 'patients' (rich, rich patients) who are pushing to live long enough to become immortal (most are hedging bets and have money to burn, but some are converts).
Immortality will come in stages called bridges though, according to the philosophy.
First, lifestyle and aggressive antiaging therapies will allow more people to approach the 125-year limit of the natural human lifespan. This is bridge one. Meanwhile, advanced medical technology will begin to fix some of the underlying biological causes of aging, allowing this natural limit to be surpassed. This is bridge two. Finally, computers become so powerful that they can model human consciousness. This will permit us to download our personalities into nonbiological substrates. When we cross this third bridge, we become information. And then, as long as we maintain multiple copies of ourselves to protect against a system crash, we won't die.
So. Hopeful? Bleak? Crackpots? I guess we'll see. I'm fairly comfortable in my fatalistic mind set. Having to change it and embrace the concept of remaining productive for the rest of my life (which is now apparently inevitably never ending if I can cross that first bridge) is creepy.
Coming Soon! The Big Bang 2! An intelligence explosion that facilitates immortality! Yes, Mr. Kurzweil is writing and filming his own autobiographical documentary in which he takes the concept further through sharing with us his thoughts on becoming a virtual woman as women are inherently more interesting to be with, therefor must be more interesting to be.
It is a romantic thought though ain't it? Not so much the shift from procreation being the meaning of life (biologically speaking) to expanding and extending consciousness through downloading our intelligence into a box, but more the thought of moving from imperfect, flawed, failing systems to limitlessly self repairing and replicating beings with a whole new set of shattered boundaries to explore.
More to come on this I'm sure..
There are singularity conferences now, and singularity journals. There has been a congressional report about confronting the challenges of the singularity, and late last year there was a meeting at the NASA Ames Research Center to explore the establishment of a singularity university. The meeting was called by Peter Diamandis, who established the X Prize. Attendees included senior government researchers from NASA, a noted Silicon Valley venture capitalist, a pioneer of private space exploration, and two computer scientists from Google.
So what exactly is the singularity? In essence (and in my simple words), the singularity is the date after which biological limitations are no more. There's a feeling out there (backed by the like of the above quote) that near the middle of this century technology will enable to immortalization of human consciousness. Even simpler? The belief is that artificial intelligences will be created in such a fashion that they will assist humans cheat death. AI's that fight disease, repair organs and reverse aging, you name it.
This concept (oddly religious in nature) has not only been validated by more than a rare few 'mids' out there, it has actually become a social movement. One of it's biggest proponents is Ray Kurzweil. Here's a little about him:
In his childhood, Kurzweil was a technical prodigy. Before he turned 13, he'd fashioned telephone relays into a calculating device that could find square roots. At 14, he wrote software that analyzed statistical deviance; the program was distributed as standard equipment with the new IBM 1620. As a teenager, he cofounded a business that matched high school students with colleges based on computer evaluation of a mail-in questionnaire. He sold the company to Harcourt, Brace & World in 1968 for $100,000 plus royalties and had his first small fortune while still an undergraduate at MIT.
It goes on and on, but you get the idea. He thinks differently and with more focus on exponential evolution rather than linear, which is the key in this kind of forward thinking. He's a bright dude. He's penned a couple books on the subject: "The Singularity is Near" and "The Age of Spiritual Machines', neither of which I've read but they're on the list.
Statements like this make me think of old Walt's and The Duke's bodies shivering away in some deep freeze hoping for eventual salvation:
The doctor charges $6,000 per appointment, and wealthy singularitarians from all over the world visit him to plan their leap into the future.
Yes, there's a doctor in Denver who sees 'patients' (rich, rich patients) who are pushing to live long enough to become immortal (most are hedging bets and have money to burn, but some are converts).
Immortality will come in stages called bridges though, according to the philosophy.
First, lifestyle and aggressive antiaging therapies will allow more people to approach the 125-year limit of the natural human lifespan. This is bridge one. Meanwhile, advanced medical technology will begin to fix some of the underlying biological causes of aging, allowing this natural limit to be surpassed. This is bridge two. Finally, computers become so powerful that they can model human consciousness. This will permit us to download our personalities into nonbiological substrates. When we cross this third bridge, we become information. And then, as long as we maintain multiple copies of ourselves to protect against a system crash, we won't die.
So. Hopeful? Bleak? Crackpots? I guess we'll see. I'm fairly comfortable in my fatalistic mind set. Having to change it and embrace the concept of remaining productive for the rest of my life (which is now apparently inevitably never ending if I can cross that first bridge) is creepy.
Coming Soon! The Big Bang 2! An intelligence explosion that facilitates immortality! Yes, Mr. Kurzweil is writing and filming his own autobiographical documentary in which he takes the concept further through sharing with us his thoughts on becoming a virtual woman as women are inherently more interesting to be with, therefor must be more interesting to be.
It is a romantic thought though ain't it? Not so much the shift from procreation being the meaning of life (biologically speaking) to expanding and extending consciousness through downloading our intelligence into a box, but more the thought of moving from imperfect, flawed, failing systems to limitlessly self repairing and replicating beings with a whole new set of shattered boundaries to explore.
More to come on this I'm sure..
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Just Funny
Still laughing about this one.
C.B. Embry Jr., a Republican member of Kentucky's General Assembly, introduced a measure earlier this year to boost the state's spirits and honor "one of the bright spots" of Kentucky's economy. But with pressing issues such as the state budget, casino gambling and proposed tax hikes occupying the legislature, the effort to honor the Corvette has been tabled for now.
Other measures put on hold include a proposal to name Kentucky Fried Chicken as the official picnic food and to make cornhole -- a bean bag toss game -- the official state game.
Of course this leads immediately to thoughts of:
"Welcome to the cornhole state" on Kentucky plates.
"My brother's name is cornhole" on t-shirts of rival state residents
.. and many, many more colorful iterations. Cough medicine is a beautiful thing.
C.B. Embry Jr., a Republican member of Kentucky's General Assembly, introduced a measure earlier this year to boost the state's spirits and honor "one of the bright spots" of Kentucky's economy. But with pressing issues such as the state budget, casino gambling and proposed tax hikes occupying the legislature, the effort to honor the Corvette has been tabled for now.
Other measures put on hold include a proposal to name Kentucky Fried Chicken as the official picnic food and to make cornhole -- a bean bag toss game -- the official state game.
Of course this leads immediately to thoughts of:
"Welcome to the cornhole state" on Kentucky plates.
"My brother's name is cornhole" on t-shirts of rival state residents
.. and many, many more colorful iterations. Cough medicine is a beautiful thing.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Evolution - yet another perspective
I was watching a couple hours of random TV while working on getting over illness and came across some chatter about faith based initiatives. Through the course of the chatter, one of the panel brought up the idea that each country in the scope of the conversation had a burden to carry from its founders that is impacting conventional issues.
A few examples:
Canada - the French
Australia - the Criminals
United States - the Puritans
Talk about a provocative concept. Which is the worst? The French? Nah, they're separatists and offer little to the Canadian people and country, but that's a relatively light burden. Criminals? If anything, that helped Australia based on the state of that country today.
It's the puritans hands down as I see it.
The very concept of puritanism is yet another one of those 'safe enough sounding on paper but a huge mess when implemented' things. How many times have you seen, read or heard about one of those down the nose lookers (often republican types) being caught with his hands in another guy's pants, or sending naughty emails to underage guys, or being on the top 10 client list at a brothel? I inwardly smile and slowly shake my head when I see the verbal venom slinging preachers vilifying the very things they are most likely involved in, or secretly craving to jump into with both feet.
Puritan is directly interchangeable with hypocrite for most intents and purposes, especially in public life (politics, celebrity etc.) as far as I'm concerned.
If I had the time or the inclination, I'd blog up a list as I cruise around reading about all the recent examples. Instead I'll go with:
Hell, just google 'moral scandal', 'republican scandal' (which is basically synonymous with the previous), 'evangelist likes little boys' or any similar mix of those words.
A few examples:
Canada - the French
Australia - the Criminals
United States - the Puritans
Talk about a provocative concept. Which is the worst? The French? Nah, they're separatists and offer little to the Canadian people and country, but that's a relatively light burden. Criminals? If anything, that helped Australia based on the state of that country today.
It's the puritans hands down as I see it.
The very concept of puritanism is yet another one of those 'safe enough sounding on paper but a huge mess when implemented' things. How many times have you seen, read or heard about one of those down the nose lookers (often republican types) being caught with his hands in another guy's pants, or sending naughty emails to underage guys, or being on the top 10 client list at a brothel? I inwardly smile and slowly shake my head when I see the verbal venom slinging preachers vilifying the very things they are most likely involved in, or secretly craving to jump into with both feet.
Puritan is directly interchangeable with hypocrite for most intents and purposes, especially in public life (politics, celebrity etc.) as far as I'm concerned.
If I had the time or the inclination, I'd blog up a list as I cruise around reading about all the recent examples. Instead I'll go with:
Hell, just google 'moral scandal', 'republican scandal' (which is basically synonymous with the previous), 'evangelist likes little boys' or any similar mix of those words.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Back with a Flash - Memes
February was a month of annoyances, illnesses and intrusions. I saw no reason to document it and advancing my human condition/evolution was stunted almost completely so nothing worth prosing about there either.
Thankfully though, now that the month is over (yes I'm writing this on that quad annual day that really shouldn't belong to February anyway), I was pulled back into my quest by the following read:
"Wired: Do successful memes have certain qualities in common?
Blackmore: Yes. Lots succeed because they're good for us or they're true or beautiful or useful and we select them for those reasons. Some other memes succeed, in spite of not being beautiful or true or useful, by using tricks. So religions, for example, have some value, but by and large they're false ideas that use tricks to get into people's heads -- threats of hell, promises of heaven, the allure of being a good person or of God loving you. There are also memes that trick you into thinking that you're going to get popular or that you're going to get rich or that you're going to get a bigger penis, whatever it is. "
That very concept readily defines my generation. What better way to sum up how we attempt to be, and are manipulated into joining, parting with dollars, propagating, or subscribing to ideas that have no inherent value.
From a usable definition perspective:
"Wired: What's the difference between a meme and an ordinary idea or thing? Does an idea or thing have to be wildly popular and widely adopted to be a meme?
Susan Blackmore: Absolutely not. The whole idea of a meme is that it's information that is copied with variation and selection. So any idea that is copied from person to person is a meme. But an idea that you think up for yourself and is not expressed is not a meme. The emphasis has to be on copying, because that's what makes evolution possible. Lots of ideas are never copied at all. They just go to a couple people and then they fizzle out."
Thematically this is a perfect fit for my exploration. I've already established that I can near-instantly gratify any retail need with a quick trip to eBay, and I can spout opinions on any subject I choose, but now through the concept of memes I can find like minded (steering clear of the collective conscience stuff) people shopping for or proclaiming the very same things that tickly my conventional fancy. The magic of it all is that I don't have to leave the house to do any of it. I can in essence evolve with some chemical reactions in my brain and a keyboard connected wirelessly to the Internet. What does that say about young people actively looking for direction? Keep them the hell away from computers.
Thankfully though, now that the month is over (yes I'm writing this on that quad annual day that really shouldn't belong to February anyway), I was pulled back into my quest by the following read:
"Wired: Do successful memes have certain qualities in common?
Blackmore: Yes. Lots succeed because they're good for us or they're true or beautiful or useful and we select them for those reasons. Some other memes succeed, in spite of not being beautiful or true or useful, by using tricks. So religions, for example, have some value, but by and large they're false ideas that use tricks to get into people's heads -- threats of hell, promises of heaven, the allure of being a good person or of God loving you. There are also memes that trick you into thinking that you're going to get popular or that you're going to get rich or that you're going to get a bigger penis, whatever it is. "
That very concept readily defines my generation. What better way to sum up how we attempt to be, and are manipulated into joining, parting with dollars, propagating, or subscribing to ideas that have no inherent value.
From a usable definition perspective:
"Wired: What's the difference between a meme and an ordinary idea or thing? Does an idea or thing have to be wildly popular and widely adopted to be a meme?
Susan Blackmore: Absolutely not. The whole idea of a meme is that it's information that is copied with variation and selection. So any idea that is copied from person to person is a meme. But an idea that you think up for yourself and is not expressed is not a meme. The emphasis has to be on copying, because that's what makes evolution possible. Lots of ideas are never copied at all. They just go to a couple people and then they fizzle out."
Thematically this is a perfect fit for my exploration. I've already established that I can near-instantly gratify any retail need with a quick trip to eBay, and I can spout opinions on any subject I choose, but now through the concept of memes I can find like minded (steering clear of the collective conscience stuff) people shopping for or proclaiming the very same things that tickly my conventional fancy. The magic of it all is that I don't have to leave the house to do any of it. I can in essence evolve with some chemical reactions in my brain and a keyboard connected wirelessly to the Internet. What does that say about young people actively looking for direction? Keep them the hell away from computers.
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