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.