Breakthroughs
The latest insights
in meme theory
The latest insights in meme theory
Presentation by Kate Jones
at 21st Annual Double Festival
of Project Renaissance, 2014
Introduction
• Each human mind is a unique combination
of perceptions, concepts, experiences,
contexts, beliefs and goals.
• Both the physical Universe and the
individual mind evolve through emerging
layers of combinations, from unity to
complexity, from chaos to organization.
Both are combinatorial and associational.
Both connect into clusters.
A short experiment
• Let’s play a little game. It’s called Sequitur,
invented by Kate Jones in 1947.
• We’ll take turns adding the next step until
everyone has had at least 2 turns.
• Don’t write anything down!
The game played by Win, Chuck, Ariane, Rita, Tony, Chris, Tim, Rick, Kate:
Pumpernickel, Ezekiel, buy at Giant, less expensive, smaller, more efficient, frictionless,
Bitcoin, new money, old debt, U.S. Treasury, Constitution Avenue, Capital, alphabet,
numbers, Deuteronomy, deuterium, ozone layer, eggs, Easter, Easter bunny, hopping,
Greece [island hopping], frying [grease], JAL [Japan Airlines, flying], JAP
Puzzles as paradigms
• Here are some puzzles that represent
systems, growing from unity to openended complexity.
• They can form countless different
compositions, answering many different
demands and goals.
• They illustrate that each level prepares the
way for the next one. There are no wrong
answers.
Polyominoes sizes 1 through 5
Rhombic Pentominoes
Matching shapes – wavy fives
Sextillions (the 35 hexominoes)
The 108 heptominoes
The 369 octominoes
All polyominoes 1 through 9
The polyiamonds 1 through 7
The 66 octiamonds
The polyhexes 1 through 5
The 82 hexahexes
Roundominoes – circle forms
Super Roundominoes
Grand Roundominoes
Matching paths - squares
Matching paths - hexagons
Matching paths - octagons
Matching paths - pentarcs
Colors/shapes – “Hexdominoes”
Colors and shapes – “Intarsia”
A quick buzz
Turn to the person next to you and in just a
few sentences tell your partner your
thoughts on these questions:
• What was the main point illustrated by
these images?
• Which ones stood out the most for you?
• How do images symbolize connections
and ideas?
A poetic interlude
• Life is a puzzle, and certain principles of
system viability apply to both. I will use
puzzle images created from the Intarsia
set to illustrate the coherence, integrity
and beauty of the Universe and, by
extension, of the human mind.
• Both evolve through emerging levels of
organization and complexity. Both are
combinatorial and associational.
153 syllables
• The viewer is asked to be aware at the
same time of four interlinking strands of
thought—the evolution of the Cosmos, the
development of an individual mind, the
symbolism of the illustrations, and the
meanings of each haiku.
• Look for relationships between parts and
the progression from one stage to the
next.
Discussion
• Turn to the person next to you and in just
a minute or two tell your partner what
points most attracted your attention, and
• How did it feel to be aware simultaneously
of four levels of connection, and to be
making those connections, if these ideas
were new to you?
A new theory of human
consciousness
• Introducing memes
• A meme is a unit of electromagnetic data.
It will hold its pattern as the DNA passes
on its genetic code for replication.
• They take on a life of their own and act like
any life form seeking to preserve itself
from destruction and change.
• Through language and action, memes
seek to spread themselves to others.
Defense
• With any new stimulus, input filters check
for similarities, differences, and any
associated hazards.
• Repetition of experiences reinforces
impressions, context, and reaction.
• Every stimulus gets a value tag based on
what’s already in the file.
• The value tag triggers a complex of
emotions. It hijacks the lower functions.
How does the system know?
• The human software’s hierarchy sorts
itself by patterns. It follows a template,
from DNA replication to meme structures.
• From the unit building block of survival
needs to the most complex legal contract,
the memes cohere in ascending sizes of
conceptual complexity.
• Any meme “bundle” can be unpacked into
its contributing components.
Memes and emotions
• Ideologies or belief systems are huge
clusters of memes that have rationalized
their structure. They will seek to maintain
their control and build ever-increasing
power over others.
• Feeling trumps thinking. Because humans’
emotions are programmed into the
memes’ modus operandi, the host has
difficulty in “rethinking” a proposition.
Is progress mathematical?
• Consider human societies from clan and
tribal to global groupings, and altering the
support structure from marauding and
conquests to subtle diplomatic dealings.
• Productive cooperation—can it work at the
largest societal level without sacrificing the
unit, the individual?
• Resource management for the long term.
The purpose of purpose
• Through natural selection, the most potent
and self-preserving functions survive.
• If staying alive is the highest priority, all
else is subsidiary to that main purpose.
• Other “purposes”, whether careers or art
or social structures, can grow only out of a
surplus built from the previous level.
• “Transcendental” seeks the next level.
Free will
• Abstract thought is a relatively recent
development of the brain. Thinking about
thinking is an emergent property.
• Understanding ourselves and examining
our meme set dispassionately is not a
ready skill. Re-evaluating our belief
systems and voluntarily making changes
based on better evidence takes an effort of
will—like a supervisor meme.
The self looking at the self
• Introspection is an emergent skill. When
does a child become aware of itself, and of
how much about itself?
• Can the mind reprogram itself? Can it be
self-correcting? Yes, with sufficient input.
• The scientific method shows human
knowledge is cumulative and correctible.
Myths, faith, rationalizations get in the
way. We need the “truth” meme.
What about imagination?
• Memes can project future developments
based on what is already known. A pattern
replicates like a fractal. The template
keeps building. The system is “sticky”.
• Human ingenuity and inventiveness are
attributes of this reaching forward and
stretching higher. Induction, deduction,
inference, logic—tools built of memes.
Everything is a symbol
• Symbols (icons) are the mind’s shorthand
way of picturing its memes. Each symbol
sits atop a huge pyramid of supporting
concepts and may, in turn, be a building
block for a larger chain. Check the roots or
premises.
• Words are symbols, too. They are memes
made visible. Speech is memes made
audible.
Conflict resolution
• In conflicts and confrontations, ask: What
memes are at stake here? What are the
participants defending?
• It’s more important to be right than to be
thought to be right. It’s OK to make
mistakes as long as they’re corrected.
• There are no paradoxes. There is no
conflict of interest. Go to the next level.
Making sense
• Know thyself. Be your own explorer,
anthropologist and archeologist of your
unique meme set. Then enjoy
encountering others and sharing their
unique insights in camaraderie and
compassion. “I’m OK, you’re OK.”
Making more sense
• If evolution favored the predatory and
ruthless, that does not work in building
lasting civilizations. We need the next level
of cognitive development. These brains of
ours have the complexity of a galaxy. We
just need to look inside.
• Win’s methods are a step in the right
direction for dynamic thinking. It’s time to
break the old paradigms.
Everything is a metaphor
• All learning (programming) is through stories—
fables, allegories, nursery rhymes...
• All our entertainments are in the form of
stories—movies, books, plays, TV, even songs,
radio plays, news reports, celebrity gossip. We
are steeped in the artificial excitement of fiction
every waking moment. Every story reinforces a
meme. How can we tell the real from the makebelieve? Reality check.
The totalitarian temptation
• Along the hierarchy of values, there is a
continuum. The mind’s calculus posits the
largest and the smallest, galaxies vs. the
quantum level, infinity vs. the singularity.
• Any quality can run to the totality of its
potential and is driven by the engine of life
and growth.
• Unchecked, a system moves toward the
totalitarian terminus.
A poetic finale
In just 10 rhyming couplets, let’s sum up all
of existence, starting with the Singularity and
moving up to Infinity, and maybe returning to
the start…
Singularity to Infinity,
A roundtrip through epistemology
1. Being—the interface to understanding
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I am; what is it, and what does it do;
And what should I do with it, and with you?
Bowties
10 unique X-tiles
2. Understanding—encoded through mathematics
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Well, let us say that one and one is two.
That seems to fit, and so it must be true.
Ten Yen
10 unique pieces
3. Mathematics —the matrix of language
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
There’s more—there’s deca-,hecto-, mega-, giga,
And peta-zetta-yotta, even bigga...
Throw A Fit
10 uniquely colored dice
4. Language—the carrier wave of thought
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
So words are handy to give things a name
That others recognize to mean the same.
Super
Roundominoes®
10 shapes, 10x10
5. Thought—the vehicle of Reason
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The wetware chortles in its galloping growth
And makes some rules to sort out what it knoweth.
Rhombic
Pentominoes
20 shapes, 10x10
6. Reason—the guardian of truth and reality
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Debunk the junk, each fallacy and fad,
Though magicians show, illusions aren’t all bad.
Quintapaths
20 unique sticks, 10x10
7. Reality—that which is, in every form and structure
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
If it exists, it’s energy or matter
And other stuff, like cosmic background chatter.
Fractured Fives
10 sides, 10 images
8. Structure—the template of evolution
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Life’s blueprint builds ’em, weird or elegant…
Genes make both dust mites and the elephant.
Rhom-Antics
Decagon of
Penrose Rhombs
9. Evolution—the ascent toward infinity
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
New combinations play with what makes sense,
Like fractals bounded by the longest fence.
Deka-Mosaik
10-fold symmetry
10. Infinity—the birth place of being
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
160 billion light years through,
The Universe kept on till it made you.
Pentarose
10-fold circular symmetry
Breakthroughs for the future:
What do you foresee?
1. What 3 or 4 points most stood out for you in this talk, and what do you think
there was about them that caused these to catch your attention? What
thoughts or observations came to you while hearing them?
2. Can you identify 3 ways that some of what we explored here might be useful to
you in understanding and evaluating future experiences and information?
What is it about these 3 that you think might be useful in this?
3. What are some of the ways that we, in today's world, could conceivably help
along the higher evolution of consciousness in our fellow humans?
Please list as many as come to mind, particularly to improve education.
The End (or Beginning)