Memetic Immune Systems
Don't mind me, I'm just thinking out loud. This may be a tad rambling.
A week or so ago, I was talking with designadrug about viral marketing in particular. At the time, I made the observation that the battle between advertisers and The Jaded Public can be compared to the battle between germs and the medical establishment, a struggle between evolving memes/germs and concurrently evolving memetic defenses/antibacterial agents.
I've been thinking on and off about the issue as it stands, and I've been wondering whether the analogy can be extended to other ideological exchanges. I noted in the original discussion that human memetic defenses have been improving considerably in sophistication since the 1950s, as the public has been getting more and more cynical about the world around them. In the 1950s, advertising techniques appeared to have a considerable edge over a more naive and trusting public, while these days, the situation seems to have reversed, and advertisers seem to be having to find more and more sophisticated memetic attacks in order to convince the public of the utility of the memes that they carry.
I wonder, though, whether the far more sophisticated public memetic defenses are entirely good for us. In particular, I wonder if we're starting to approach the point where we're getting the equivalent of memetic allergies in the memespace around us. A lot of people around me have been despairing at the apparent inability for the public to recognise obvious goods, and I've heard the theory that politicians in particular are so used to thinking that everyone and everything has an "agenda", that they naturally believe that science has an agenda as well.
Perhaps the public are too cynical for our own good? We've become so adept at being cynical at the overt messages that the world keeps sending us that we've become incapable of distinguishing between good and bad messages, and reject all messages that don't match up with our constructed view of the world. You may, of course, be wondering at this point "why then do the fundamentalists seem to be getting the upper hand?". I think, honestly, they always did. I think our memetic immune system, much like our biological immune system, requires time to build up sophistication. Get the kids early, and you may very well have them for life. Religions also have the assistance of a long-standing connection with Authority, giving their words a touch more weight.
A week or so ago, I was talking with designadrug about viral marketing in particular. At the time, I made the observation that the battle between advertisers and The Jaded Public can be compared to the battle between germs and the medical establishment, a struggle between evolving memes/germs and concurrently evolving memetic defenses/antibacterial agents.
I've been thinking on and off about the issue as it stands, and I've been wondering whether the analogy can be extended to other ideological exchanges. I noted in the original discussion that human memetic defenses have been improving considerably in sophistication since the 1950s, as the public has been getting more and more cynical about the world around them. In the 1950s, advertising techniques appeared to have a considerable edge over a more naive and trusting public, while these days, the situation seems to have reversed, and advertisers seem to be having to find more and more sophisticated memetic attacks in order to convince the public of the utility of the memes that they carry.
I wonder, though, whether the far more sophisticated public memetic defenses are entirely good for us. In particular, I wonder if we're starting to approach the point where we're getting the equivalent of memetic allergies in the memespace around us. A lot of people around me have been despairing at the apparent inability for the public to recognise obvious goods, and I've heard the theory that politicians in particular are so used to thinking that everyone and everything has an "agenda", that they naturally believe that science has an agenda as well.
Perhaps the public are too cynical for our own good? We've become so adept at being cynical at the overt messages that the world keeps sending us that we've become incapable of distinguishing between good and bad messages, and reject all messages that don't match up with our constructed view of the world. You may, of course, be wondering at this point "why then do the fundamentalists seem to be getting the upper hand?". I think, honestly, they always did. I think our memetic immune system, much like our biological immune system, requires time to build up sophistication. Get the kids early, and you may very well have them for life. Religions also have the assistance of a long-standing connection with Authority, giving their words a touch more weight.