From: Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Tue Apr 22 1997 - 03:07:05 MDT
On Mon, 21 Apr 1997, Hal Dunn wrote:
> Anyone notice an "urban legend awareness" meme lately? A.K.A. the "Here's
> something else that didn't really happen" meme or the "Be careful what you
> THINK you know" meme.
I think I have noticed something like this. My guess is that people in
general are becoming slightly more aware of media, information flow and
memetics, although in a rather intuitive way.
> My theory is that the
> Internet has also facilitated the spread of the "Here's something else that
> didn't really happen" meme.
That may be because refutations can spread much more quickly. Rumor
epidemics usually last until a refutation meme is spread. On the net,
refutations quickly appear (their hosts often engaging the legend hosts in a
flamewar), so net.legends that doesn't pretend to be true (and hence
cannot be refuted) have a higher fitness.
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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
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