"Wait a minute--this Snow Crash thing, is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?"
"What's the difference?"
This was the original definition of a "meme" as coined by Richard Dawkins: instead of humans choosing what to think, what if ideas self-replicate using human minds as hosts? Religions, languages, agriculture, chemistry, the word "like", uptalk, literally any thought or behavior pattern can be framed this way.
"Wait a minute--this Snow Crash thing, is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?"
"What's the difference?"
This was the original definition of a "meme" as coined by Richard Dawkins: instead of humans choosing what to think, what if ideas self-replicate using human minds as hosts? Religions, languages, agriculture, chemistry, the word "like", uptalk, literally any thought or behavior pattern can be framed this way.
See also: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/17/the-toxoplasma-of-rage...