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The Short Life and Long Death of Memes

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The Short Life and Long Death of Memes
Topic: Miscellaneous 9:22 pm EDT, Mar 17, 2007

Life is short for a meme, it seems, and unpredictable, to boot.

Unlike baby mammals, a meme cannot expect to go from conception to birth in a standard, more or less fixed period of time. Some memes are born immediately, whereas others may linger in gestation for years on end. Because prenatal care is so poor in the meme world, miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant mortality rates are quite high. Even worse, abortion and infanticide of new memes are commonplace in some quarters.

However, also unlike mammals -- and in fact most higher organisms -- a meme reaches reproductive age only moments after its birth. If it only manages to find its way to a target-rich environment, growth opportunities abound.

Yet even the most successful families of memes can go from pauperdom to dynasty to death to dust, all in the span of a few days.

Fortunately, here at MemeStreams, they don't bury or incinerate our beloved memes of yore. Instead, the crack team of scientists at the Industrial Memetics Institute has developed a highly advanced cryopreservation service. Unlike similar services for humans and other mammals, the service provided by MemeStreams is active today. It allows you -- in fact, anyone -- to reanimate a suspended meme of your choosing, and then to deposit it in the memetic meat market that is your blog.

Sadly, I have found that most MemeStreams users only rarely -- if ever -- avail themselves of the benefits of these remarkable cryorestoration services. As an independent profit center with no annual allocation from the IMI budget, the cryo unit is perpetually at risk of closure. For months now, the unit has been unable to hire staff to replace three of its senior technicians lost to headhunters in Q4FY06.

As part of the upcoming "Reanimemer" promotional campaign aimed at a Q3FY07 turn-around for the ailing cryo unit, I have scoured their voluminous records to provide you with a small sampling of what is presently on offer. I encourage you to plan your own visit soon.

Radebaugh: The Future We Were Promised (now, archived here by wayback, and here)

Terrorists terrorists terrorists terrorists terrorists terrorists terrorists. (now at YouTube) -- This video still amazes me.

A business model for MemeStreams

Neurodiversity Forever

The Philosopher of Islamic Terror (now behind "the wall", but archived here, and elsewhere)

The copyright cops strike again (now here)

Civil Liberties and National Security, By George Friedman

Atlanta Time Machine

The Periodic Table like you have NEVER seen

The New Diamond Age

Biotech is for Toddlers, and The Darwinian Interlude

Hobo Signs & Symbols

Wikis and Blogs for Intelligence, and Rattle: "I think we have some some clue the IC would be interested in ..."

Secret Handshakes from Pairing-Based Key Agreements

Here They Are, Science's 10 Most Beautiful Experiments (now behind "the wall", but archived here, and elsewhere)

America's Secret War - George Friedman - Author interviews

Waging the "War of Ideas"

Channeling Propellerheads on Kill Bill and Quicksilver (for audio, go here)

The Short Life and Long Death of Memes



 
 
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