Re: MEMETICS: Humor (was The Good, the Bad and the Ugly)

Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Thu, 23 Jan 1997 19:56:29 -0500


T0Morrow@aol.com wrote:
>
> Sunah.Caroline.Cherwin@pobox.com writes:
>
> >>You might enjoy the experience of making more challenging jokes.
> >to a more curious crowd.
>
> I don't get it. What do you mean?
>
> I've given some more thought to humor, and posted a revised version of my
> essay, "On the Importance of Silliness" off of the T0Mpage cited below.
> Here's the punchline:
>
> I suggest that <EM>humor, like inoculation, generates anti-memes</EM>.
> Though the exact causal mechanism remains unclear (as do the causes of humor
> itself) I theorize that making a meme the butt of jokes transmits it in
> enfeebled form. Just as inoculations prepare our immune systems for
> potentially worse things, silliness can introduce a meme while simultaneously
> stripping it of authority.
>

The corrolary then would be to innoculate people against
statism/ludditism by mocking/satirizing the heck out of those sort of
memes.

Note: in the last ten years, sports stars have gone from objects of
worship to objects of derision, while the geek has gone in the opposite
direction. A simple matter of doing good by doing well.

-- 
TANSTAAFL!!!

Michael Lorrey ------------------------------------------------------------ President retroman@tpk.net Northstar Technologies Agent Lorrey@ThePentagon.com Inventor of the Lorrey Drive Silo_1013@ThePentagon.com

Website: http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/ Now Featuring: Mikey's Animatronic Factory http://www.tpk.net/~retroman/animations.htm My Own Nuclear Espionage Agency (MONEA) MIKEYMAS(tm): The New Internet Holiday Transhumans of New Hampshire (>HNH) ------------------------------------------------------------ Transhumanist, Inventor, Webmaster, Ski Guide, Entrepreneur, Artist, Outdoorsman, Libertarian, Arms Exporter-see below. ------------------------------------------------------------ #!/usr/local/bin/perl-0777---export-a-crypto-system-sig-RC4-3-lines-PERL @k=unpack('C*',pack('H*',shift));for(@t=@s=0..255){$y=($k[$_%@k]+$s[$x=$_ ]+$y)%256;&S}$x=$y=0;for(unpack('C*',<>)){$x++;$y=($s[$x%=256]+$y)%256; &S;print pack(C,$_^=$s[($s[$x]+$s[$y])%256])}sub S{@s[$x,$y]=@s[$y,$x]}