The reason I tentatively claim this might be a meme is on the basis that it appears to be a set of imitated behaviours which are selected for. So if you laugh and everything you look like a dork, but similarly if you miss Spanish Inquisition references everyone will be horrified. etc.
Sounds to me like you're identifying selection pressures for the memes. The variant memes are:
'laugh like you got it' 'throw a carrot at the speaker' 'insult the person who made an in-joke you didn't get' 'ask about the reference' 'say "I was going to say that but thought it too simplistic"'
and two pressures are:
'if you laugh and [at?] everything you look like a dork' 'if you miss Spanish Inquisition references everyone will be horrified'
The meme balance is indeed likely to depend on the relative presence of these pressures in the population.
Memes, like genes, obviously don't know they're being selected for. The stripes on the poisonous toad are caused by 'a similar gene to' [1] the ones on the faking-poison toad, it's the environment (and it's not liking to eat striped toads) that makes the gene succesful in either sort of toad.
[1] 'a similar gene to': I know this makes no real sense. I'm talking about a similar mechanism, a similar 'action'.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2003-06-20 07:57 am (UTC)Sounds to me like you're identifying selection pressures for the memes. The variant memes are:
'laugh like you got it'
'throw a carrot at the speaker'
'insult the person who made an in-joke you didn't get'
'ask about the reference'
'say "I was going to say that but thought it too simplistic"'
and two pressures are:
'if you laugh and [at?] everything you look like a dork'
'if you miss Spanish Inquisition references everyone will be horrified'
The meme balance is indeed likely to depend on the relative presence of these pressures in the population.
Memes, like genes, obviously don't know they're being selected for. The stripes on the poisonous toad are caused by 'a similar gene to' [1] the ones on the faking-poison toad, it's the environment (and it's not liking to eat striped toads) that makes the gene succesful in either sort of toad.
[1] 'a similar gene to': I know this makes no real sense. I'm talking about a similar mechanism, a similar 'action'.