Memetics

[Ylva]

The science of memetics is the study of how ideas spread.

At least that's how I understand it.

And for a while I thought, okay, that's cool that it's not just about lol memes, but so what? But now I think it might touch upon an important mechanism that can help us understand the allistic world better. Ourselves, too.

What I've heard is that memetics kind of died down because the people studying it had a hard time defining exactly what they were studying. What I grasp is, autistics are probably immune to some memes, and more susceptible to others. That there are cultural ideas that don't stick to our brains the way they stick to NT brains. (Not sure about the other divergent neurotypes.)

To give a personal example (since I don't know how it was for anyone else), as a child I accepted the Santa Claus myth, but I didn't get upset when I figured it out – I was happy because the world made more sense than it did with Santa in it. A meme I bought into much harder than my NT peers, however, was the idea that you have to go to college. I basicically had a deep conviction that I had to go to college. (In reality I got very little out of it besides more experience with ableism. I read more now than I was able to then.)

I don't really have a clear hypothesis, I just wanted to discuss it with other autistics.

 

[Greatshield17]

Interesting topic. Unfortunately in this day and age of polarization and tribalization, I think it will be difficult to find good information on the spread of ideas.

I wonder how tribalism effects our approach to ideas? Especially considering we tend to have a strong sense of integrity.

 

[Progster]

I think that autistic people tend to want to do their own thing and aren't so susceptible to peer pressure and perhaps aren't so likely to buy into cultural memes.

I can only speak for myself here, but a lot of cultural stuff such as traditions, ceremonies and rituals either doesn't make much sense to me or seem pretty pointless. Things like dressing up, wearing suits and ties, high heels, weddings, proms, opening ceremonies, this kind of thng. I guess their function is primary social and if you enjoy being around people, then you enjoy such occasions.

Also, some memes are related to popular media - movies, TV shows, music, celebrities etc. Again, I don't consume a lot of pop culture and so just don't get a lot of them, they mean nothing to me and so have no effect.

A lot of people post with an image meme, often a person with some expression on their face that I'm supposed to be able to interpret. I often don't understand these, don't know how the image relates to the topic and what they want to communicate with it. If someone wants to say something, they should just say it.

 

[Mia]

"The term meme was coined in Richard Dawkins' 1976 book The Selfish Gene originally. He proposed that the meme is a unit of information residing in the brain and is the mutating replicator in human cultural evolution.*"

When I read the book, I was immediately taken with the idea of cultural evolution at the time. As I was studying art history and the way in which ideas are passed along within the art movement.

Artists are influenced by many things going on around them. So when impressionism for example becomes 'trendy' in defiance against an established art style, many artists of that time begin using impressionist styles of painting. In effect, memetics play a part in their individualistic concepts of art.

Not wanting to be influenced by all that much, they still are influenced unknowingly by the ideas circulating around them. The same could be said of musicians, writers, who work at their chosen profession to make a living of sorts.

The same could also be said of indigenous pottery. Where and how it's styles and firings and glazes were passed along is a history of the interactions of it's peoples. Some used cord to create striations on the pots, some indented with tools, some painted images, some glazed. Influences from one group or tribe to the other, were passed along, and the geographical distances were great. Yet somehow, the ideas and techniques and knowledge moved either through trade or word of mouth across continents.

Connecting those clues is the essence of a cultural evolution, a fragmented history of the human race.


*Memetics - Wikipedia

 

[Alexej]

I am reading a book by Rene Girard about Mimetics. Quite honestly I do have problems getting my mind round what mimetics actually is.

 

[Ylva]

I found a guy on fb who likens memetics to demonology. I don't think he's superstitious, he just finds it a good metaphor. "Memes possess you," he says. I think he's onto something.

 

[Joshua the Writer]

I have an entire folder on my computer about relatable autism memes I stole off the internet. Here is one of them:

Memes are a valuable way (in my experience, at least), to share with others and help understand and relate to others. For example, I look at memes about anxiety because they are funny and remind me that there are people who go through the same stuff as I do.