I meant it as a compliment!
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Show posts MenuQuote from: Luna on February 07, 2012, 02:59:09 AMQuote from: Billy the Twid on February 07, 2012, 12:12:56 AM
... If you are without papers, you get sent to Providence, where you'll be at the mercy of Suu, Richter and Luna.
Oooh, pretty please? They said we couldn't have any more after what happened to the LAST one.
The yelling, the screaming, the police reports, the mess...
QuoteIs it smooth?This is exactly where I was going! Too bad it's being used by dickbag marketers
After someone's been exposed to an ideavirus just once, they're not likely to actually catch it. We've made our brains bulletproof and ideaproof. There's so much clutter, so much noise, so many ideas to choose from that the vast majority of them fail to make a dent.
Think about the last time you walked through a bookstore (the home of ideaviruses waiting to happen). How many books did you stop and look at? Pick up? Turn over? And how many of those books ended up in your shopping basket? Got read? Led you to tell ten friends? Precious few, that's for sure.
Compare this to the Harry Potter phenomenon... the bestselling books of the last few years, created just because kids told kids. A classic ideavirus, and one that initially grew with no promotion at all from the publisher.
It's difficult to get from awareness to the "sale" of an idea, to convert a stranger into a friend and a friend into a carrier of your ideavirus. An ideavirus succeeds when it pierces our natural defenses and makes an impact.
Quote from: Placid Dingo on February 06, 2012, 03:12:57 AMI need to learn more about social contagion research before I could give you a solid answer for that. I will say that I believe memetics will provide a better background for this type of research, and will give researchers a better grasp of what is being transmitted, how to manage the spread of unhealthy memes, and also give them the opportunity to identify and even utilize healthy "social contagions."
Reading the article now. Some thoughtsQuoteThe above experiment is a simple example of applied memetics operationalised as the study of infectious acts, opinions and emotions. Now, the critic could argue that this understanding of memetics adds little to the already established field of social contagion research, apart from providing a useful label for the object of contagion. However, from the understanding of memetics proposed here, this is not a problem because memetic research is social contagion research.
I guess this is my issue. If memetics is another word for 'social contagion research', what is it adding to the field (other than, as mentioned, a useful term.)
QuoteYes, most places teach journalists not to report on suicides. We also learned in the US to stop giving bomb scares at schools any air time.
Also, I'm not sure if memes-genes is a great comparison (even though thats the origin of the term) because a meme does not have to increase an individuals likelihood of survival to spread, it just has to offer them something of value.
The research itself, while it more or less confirms what we already know (I think it's Blink by Malcolm Gladwell where subjects reading words associated with old age behind to move slower and act older) is certainly very interesting.
His hypothesis is lost me a littleQuoteWhilst a genetic `enablement' of suicide may well be feasible, it is possible to apply an alternative cultural model using a similar logic. Specifically, if cultural variations, such as those that enable suicide, persist based on their likelihood of being adopted, then the inclusion of suicide in a culture as a meme is only viable over time if it has no systematically deleterious effect on its own reproduction. Now, one way that this could be possible is if those committing suicide were not significant contributors to the propagation of suicide themselves, so that their deaths would not negatively impact on the persistence of suicide. It is this point that provides a selectionist hypothesis for susceptibility to suicide contagion insofar as such susceptibility might be contingent on a reduced residual capacity to pass on culture. In such cases, suicide would not be maladaptive, because the suicidal individual would not be culturally `viable'.
This model leads to an empirical prediction pertaining to those most at risk from suicide contagion. The model would predict that those susceptible to suicide contagion should be those with a reduced residual capacity to spread culture, that is, those who become socially isolated and culturally disenfranchised. Indeed, over and above the possibility that suicide may be used as a strategy for increasing a waning cultural fitness, the fact that cultures are shared means that the suicide of those whose capacity to reproduce their culture has become compromised could actually increase the overall capacity of cultural relatives to pass on shared culture, including any suicide meme. In fact, if an individual actually represented a cost to the overall reproductive potential of the shared culture to which suicide is a part, then suicide could actually have a positive effect on the likelihood that that some `suicide culture' gets reproduced. In this model, differential ownership of the means of cultural reproduction, or simply put, marginality, would be a key variable in susceptibility to suicide contagion, and to suicide in general.
I read that three times and I'm still not sure I get it. Are we saying an individual who is very receptive to Memes but does not see their own memes spread (so, someone who doesn't have a lot of social influence) is more likely to commit suicide? I didn't follow the logic here.
Now for some confirmation bias. I feel that memetics is best used as a practical tool for navigating information systems. The author's suggestion that media avoid reporting on suicide (or at least avoid reporting on suicide AS suicide) is a good example of applying a Memetic model in practical ways to effectively manipulate the flow of information. I'm not sure where the author comes from, but I'm actually pretty sure news media in Australia already restrict their coverage of suicide cases, for the reasons mentioned.
Quote from: Fuck You One-Eye on February 05, 2012, 06:43:29 PMThey've got one of those, but it has the same small keyboard problem as a netbook.
I have a leather case for my android tablet that comes with a USB-powered keboard built in, as well as a stand that folds out to prop the screen up. I imagine they must make something similar for the iPad.
Also, the swype app is your friend, for taking quick notes.
Quote from: Nigel on February 05, 2012, 06:32:12 PMThere's a guy who sits next to me in math who is always fiddling with his iPad and it annoys me. I am not in school to laugh at funny pictures on the Internet, thanks! Also, I wonder if it occurs to him that maybe he makes stupid mistakes on tests because he's always rushing through them so he can fiddle with his toy.If you're thinking about writing papers on it, I would add the cost of a keyboard to your calculations. I don't mind the on screen thing, but I couldn't write anything more than a page or so on it without getting really frustrated. You can always go without for a month or two and see if it's comfortable enough for you.
The keypad issue is one that I've been wondering about. I had more or less concluded that I don't want a netbook because of the tiny keyboard, but was wondering how the ipad stacks up. One of my friends (who doesn't have one) seems convinced that it would be useless for writing papers, but another friend (who does have one) uses hers to write papers and likes it. Plus, the whole electronic textbook thing... it seems like more and more textbooks are available in electronic format, and that could really take some weight off my back.
Quote from: Golden Applesauce on February 05, 2012, 06:41:23 AMQuote from: Queen_Gogira on February 05, 2012, 04:32:34 AM
My theory is that some types of mental illness are memetic in nature, and that there are people who catch them more frequently and with more dramatic symptoms than average because they suffer from a weakened memetic immune system...
A meme is a "unit of cultural information." There is some link between culture and mental illnesses - there are some mental illnesses that only happen in some cultures, and some mental illnesses that are expressed differently in different cultures - but it's still a leap to say that the cultural knowledge itself caused the psychological illness. Not saying that it's not possible, but it's a hypothesis that needs to be informed by a lot of research. You'd also need to show how your new theory does a better job of explaining something than the other more standard psychiatric models.
Quote from: Luna on February 05, 2012, 02:25:11 AMI hear a vat full of hydrochloric acid works for thatQuote from: Queen_Gogira on February 05, 2012, 01:56:25 AM
Him still being married won't be that big of a deal (beyond you getting to laugh at him on your court date).
Yeah... Better over with fast.
I'm just wishing he'd vanish.