August 28th, 2025
- #2tweet what makes two instances the same 'meme'? there's lineage, sure, but there can also be parallel developments that mutually recognize each other as same"
- [I tweeted just the first question today]
- what makes two instances the same 'meme'? there's lineage, sure, but there can also be parallel developments that mutually recognize each other as same"
- "what makes two instances the same 'meme'? core question for memetics, that I gather Blackmore's attempt at a memetics field died failing to answer. I don't have a robust answer yet but it seems like it has something to do with self-recognition
- when the meme is simple, the recognition is done by an intelligence that doesn't identify as the meme
- when the meme is complex enough to have an identity, the recognition is a form of self-recognition
- sometimes one version of a meme will recognize the other, but not vice versa
- [QT the "having an ego is a meme"]
- wait but also the ego itself is a meme in a different sense, it's just usually harder/slow to transmit between minds
- new articulation of omniwin training game
- the basic premise is that each player has some set of constraints and the goal is to figure out how to satisfy them all at once
- the simple version is that each player knows exactly what their own constraints are, but can't talk about them, they can only propose options and communicate 👍/ 👎 , and everybody wins when someone proposes an option that works for everybody
- (an example of the simple version is that each player picks some criterion that a word has to match, could be like "must have exactly 2 vowels" or "must be a verb" and then you try to find a word that matches them all)
- but I feel like the more interesting/realistic versions are where you don't actually have complete knowledge of your own constraints (/desires) but you have better access than others do to checking in with them... which would require some sort of system that could be deterministic (but with a lot of parameters) or could be run by an LLM or something.
- and then you can communicate openly, and speculate about what you think would work for you