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  • 4 weeks later...

Speed o Fie, please remember to check the date of the last post before replying. The last post before you was nearly a month ago.

 

I'm on my iPod do I can't check very well, but I'm pretty sure you have already been asked not to do this by the moderation staff. Please try to be more aware of the topic you are posting in as to prevent topic necro. Thank you!

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We revel in our memetic superiority, at least in our tiny corner of the virtual world.

 

Given Richard Dawkins' original definition of a meme as a self-replicating unit of culture, can we really call any meme successful if it is limited to a tiny corner of the virtual world, such as exemplified by the Spiderweb community?

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Given Richard Dawkins' original definition of a meme as a self-replicating unit of culture, can we really call any meme successful if it is limited to a tiny corner of the virtual world, such as exemplified by the Spiderweb community?

As long as it continues to successfully replicate in that tiny corner, why not? Specialization is a good way to ensure survival in a stable environment, and Spiderweb doesn't seem likely to disappear any time soon.

 

Dikiyoba isn't sure what the meme equivalent for mass extinctions are, though. Or whether it really makes any sense at all to compare bits of culture to DNA.

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As long as it continues to successfully replicate in that tiny corner, why not? Specialization is a good way to ensure survival in a stable environment, and Spiderweb doesn't seem likely to disappear any time soon.

 

Dikiyoba isn't sure what the meme equivalent for mass extinctions are, though. Or whether it really makes any sense at all to compare bits of culture to DNA.

There are successful island species that occupy only one tiny island. Remember, evolution doesn't have a strategy or even a plan. It just happens. Success is still existing and failure is ceasing to exist.

 

Mass extinction is probably most similar to a particular meme pool drying up. If Spiderweb ceased to exist and its servers closed down it would be bad news for our memes. Some would persist for a while on satellites, but only the hardiest would be carried onto new boards.

 

—Alorael, who doesn't think it's a very accurate comparison to try to liken ideas to genes. Still, it does convey some interesting ideas by analogy. It works.

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