Philosophy: The Replication Of The Thought Virus Among The Human Society

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the concept of "thought viruses," or memes, and their impact on human behavior and society. Participants explore the nature of memes, their origins, and their effects on individuals and culture, touching on philosophical implications and personal experiences.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Debate/contested
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants define a thought virus as a meme that alters behavior and propagates through communication.
  • One participant suggests that the human mind of a newborn is blank except for memes received from the mother, while another counters that genes, not memes, are passed at birth.
  • There is a discussion about whether unborn babies can observe their environment and if they can receive memes before birth.
  • Some argue that certain memes can immunize individuals against harmful ideas, while others question the significance of memes in the womb.
  • One participant compares the concept of memes to viruses and bacteria, noting similarities in behavior and impact.
  • Another participant reflects on cultural shifts and the acceptance of negative statements in society, questioning if this is a new phenomenon.
  • Some express that while memes can be harmful, they can also spread positive ideas, suggesting a dual nature to their influence.
  • There is uncertainty about the definition of memes and whether they can be considered beneficial or detrimental.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a variety of views on the nature and impact of memes, with no clear consensus on whether they are inherently good or bad, or on the mechanisms by which they operate. The discussion remains unresolved with multiple competing perspectives.

Contextual Notes

Participants reference various theories and personal experiences, leading to differing interpretations of how memes function and their significance in human society. Some statements reflect assumptions about the nature of thought and observation in unborn babies, which remain unexamined.

physicskid
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[?] What is a thought virus?
You can call it a meme or an idea
that replicates by symbiotically infecting human minds
and altering their behavior,
causing them to propagate the meme.

Our society have always been buzing
with these meme around through communication.
You might be thinking that a meme is a bad thing,
from its association with a virus right?!

Nope, it can be a good thing too,
like an anti-smoking or anti-terrorism slogan.

There are many kind of them "fizzling" in the air.
The computer screen you are now staring at
is blasting thousands of memes rockets at you!
(yeap, they are like living organisms!)

There are BILLIONS of meme specieS
and BILLIONS of their various effects
(some are crawling & controlling your SuperBrain )!

Can you find any common species of meme around you
or any Highly Destructive or Harmful Meme existing??
 
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meme to me

where i work its a dull place and my job is a dull job but what makes it worse is the fact i have to look, read, input death every day , and this i swaer does affect you after you have worked here for a long enough, but the thoughts that this produces i swear are from the work i do , very bad i know but the thought you had on this thread leads to others and so on,

a thought virus look at hitler and mein kamp (sorry i know wrong spelling)

but a question to think about is

was that my thought i just had, or a thought that was in the air?

are we actual thinking for ourselfs or is the virus doing for us?

could we every know?
 
There's one theory that conclude:
The human mind of a newborn baby is absolutely blank,
excluding the memes it receives from
he or she's mother's womb.

So whatever we do are actually the work of the memes
we absorbs in our brains throughout our entire life!

Some meme species are armed with the capability
to immunize the host against various memes.
For example,
if you have a meme and its DNA codes says,
"All eskimos are man-eaters",
you would surely not learn anything about them right?!

Maybe the George Bush should consider
engineering a highly contagious meme
that is about anti-terrorism?!
 
Originally posted by physicskid
There's one theory that conclude:
The human mind of a newborn baby is absolutely blank,
excluding the memes it receives from
he or she's mother's womb.

The mother doesn't pass any memes to the child, at birth. She passes genes (the other major "molder" of individual humans).
 
The unborn baby possesses the ability
to observe his or her mother's womb.

In order to allow a meme to be transported
from one to another,
there must be a source of the meme
and the suitable host.

Unborn Baby> Able to observe

Mother's womb> memes generator>
texture of womb, vibrations, sounds, movements, etc.

Meme => a thought => emotion => behavior
 
Originally posted by physicskid
The unborn baby possesses the ability
to observe his or her mother's womb.

What?

In order to allow a meme to be transported
from one to another,
there must be a source of the meme
and the suitable host.

Unborn Baby> Able to observe

But is the baby really able to observe, when his/her eyes are not yet developed, and neither is his/her brain?

Mother's womb> memes generator>
texture of womb, vibrations, sounds, movements, etc.

Meme => a thought => emotion => behavior

Sorry, I'm used to the use of memes in the context of cultural evolution.
 
Ugh. This "womb memes" theory sounds like the engrams theory of scientology. A concept whose use has caused a great deal of human unhappiness.
 
But is the baby really able to observe,
when his/her eyes are not yet developed,
and neither is his/her brain?

By the eighth week,
the unborn baby is able to hear.

You might be interested in this
website on fetal developement
http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/fetaldevelopment.html
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Originally posted by physicskid
By the eighth week,
the unborn baby is able to hear.

You might be interested in this
website on fetal developement
http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/fetaldevelopment.html

Look, even if information is being processed by the unborn child, there are no memes of any significance to be found in a uterus.
 
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  • #10
Yeap, i agree these are not really
significant memes.
But there are also some techniques for
developing the unborn baby's brain!

For example: Puting a headphone playing Mozart's
music on the mother's stomach and
exposing her stomach to sunlight to cast
shadows with her hands to excite the baby!
 
  • #11
why do you call it a virus if everyone has memes?
 
  • #12
sorry, my reply is below.
 
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  • #13
Because both of them display similar behaviors.
And they are the ability to:
  1. multiply & spread rapidly
  2. mutate into other forms after some time.
  3. control the behavior of their hosts
    [/list=1]

    You can also call it a bacteria because there are both good and bad bacteria around(same as memes).
 
  • #14
check out global brain if you have not yet. talks about the human race to be as cancer to the world. It's a sundance awarded film. I forget the writers name.
 
  • #15
memes

During the last decade, I've encountered more and more a cultural shift to the right where tough negative survivor statements like "that's called kicking your ass!","we will kick your alien ass!", "so and so is a buffoon", "he/she/such and such is gay", "he/she is a loser" are all quite acceptable statements to make publicly in mixed company and in movies.The tribe has spoken!
Is it really something new or more common than in the past? Probably not. I've read material from the 1920's and 1930's that wasn't much different and overheard teenagers of decades ago cursing away almost as much as the 10 year old boy playing a computer game near me.Why this kid woould want to play a wargame with so many mother****ers in it is beyond me.
How much more is needed to produce a good devil theory so everyone in the country has a devil's asstokick!
I sure wouldn't want to be a baby boomer in an old folks home or cross the wrong lane on an interstate highway. Well Dad, we had a vote ...
 
  • #16
These statements used to be common with men in stag environments like locker rooms and smokers. But women were supposed to be shocked and disgusted by such talk and it was part of the "deal" (which wasn't a deal at all, but was regarded so by the men) that women would be protected from rough talk, in exchange for delegating running of the world to the men.

When Eleanor Roosevelt (FDR's wife) visited a US Navy ship during WWII, she came back saying "US sailors have the cleanest bodies and the dirtiest minds of anybody in the world".
 
  • #17
physicskid's sig
Freedom of Mind= GENIUS!

Me likes!
 
  • #18
While memes can cause you harm, they can also do good. Such as the spread of ideas such as logic and goodness. I would not consider them a virus, I would consider them ideas.

You have obviously been living in North Korea for too long.
 
  • #19
whowho now?
memes... this is the first place I've ever heard of such a thing.

... seems like a good definition of a working meme on someone would be influences that comply with the prexisting hosts beliefs causing the host to accept whatever the meme is... is that valid?

the author said a thought virus could be looked at as a meme, I am sure he would have included in there if he knew anyone would abstract that point to converse on that this type of meme is negative/non-beneficial/etc.

hah, I am not even sure if i got a good grasp on what a meme is, and here i am flappin' the jaw... or exercising the fingers i should say ! ;)
 

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