[Air-L] Meme Tracking

[David Stodolsky]

This helpful message illustrates some of the difficulties I have been describing:

: the image suggests one should not pay attention to anything outside of evolutionary biology that comes from Dawkins.
However, the image is described as a “meme,” which is not an evolutionary biology contribution from Dawkins.

: it fails to correctly label the object of discussion.  Flowchart is the correct description.

: the term used, “meme,” attempts to explain the spread of an image by and through a population, but there is no reference to people.
We are led to believe that the spread is somehow inherent in the image.
Studies of rumor propagation show that population density, etc. are critical to a rumor spreading or dying out. 
Similarly, studies of the spread of innovation show it is highly dependent upon the ability of firms to absorb new knowledge.

: it promotes the name of a hypocritical racist religious fanatic


So, if you think self-contradictory, imprecise, invalid language in the service of fanatical individualism is desirable, you should use the term “meme’.


dss

> On 10 Jun 2017, at 23:27, Tof Eklund <tof.eklund at aut.ac.nz> wrote:
> 
> I'm personally fond of this flowchart, which regularly gets shared as (pop cultural) meme in response to Dawkin's latest Islamophonic tirade:
> 

David Stodolsky, PhD                   Institute for Social Informatics
Tornskadestien 2, st. th., DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark
dss at socialinformatics.org          Skype/Twitter: davidstodolsky