fartsparkles

You’re not at all wrong and I think that’s one of the many reasons why memetics has been widely criticised. I think it had its place in the 70s while selfish replication / kin selection was being explored and popularized but I think it’s been widely discredited at this point.

I know I was arguing the definition of a term but I’m truth, I don’t personally subscribe to the overall theory (Dawkins did write the book almost half a century ago at this point!). The “meme” is a bit of pseudoscience to vaguely articulate the propagation and proliferation of ideas/culture.

You should check out The Social Conquest of Earth if you’ve not already. It doesn’t have a compelling descriptor but it does shine a light on how natural selection doesn’t take place at purely the gene level. In a sense, we shouldn’t focus on the unit of the meme but instead the mechanisms around it.

I’ve really appreciated this little debate; you’re clearly a bright person!

I still disagree. The variation with selective retention is the Twitter post being screenshotted rather than hyperlinked to i.e. the context, comments, likes, retweets, etc have been lost, the text retained, but instead mutated into pixels to be shared visually. Copied (the text), varied (into image), selected (context and source disregarded). The image has been shared across multiple different platforms, and is spreading as it is influencing cultural ideas and, potentially, behaviors. It has propagated through imitation and replication.

This is memetics at work. A screenshot of something shared to wider social circles is, much to many’s chagrin, a meme.

I understand the disconnect; the other commenter likely first encountered “memes” as entertaining images with text over them.

And since this is a picture (a reproduction) of a text post to an entirely different social media platform, this meme is reproducing. I’ve seen it posted to several different communities since this post, and no doubt users of those communities will have copied the image, sent to their friends, reposted to Facebook, blah blah.

Indeed, it is a meme.

“is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the internet primarily through social media… They are highly versatile in form and purpose, serving as tools for light entertainment, self-expression, social commentary, and even political discourse..”

The medium is the only major difference. This is certainly sociopolitical commentary.

Whetstone for keeping blades sharp. Makes everything so much quicker and safer (dulled blades slip).

Or perhaps a ceramic coated cast iron pot and lid. You can practically cook any meal in the thing, switch it in and out of the oven, put it on the burners, fry in it, deglaze and make a quick sauce with the caramelisation on it. Chefkiss.

Also I think you meant *utensil

And in total accordance with the definitions of the terms “meme” and “memetics”.

Incorrect. I don’t think you’re aware that a meme is a word from theoretical science (memetics) where the meme is a unit of culture that can be transmitted from one mind to another.

An image capturing an individual’s statement is easily a meme. We’re all here talking about it and its shared perspectives and insights about the negative behavior of a large corporation.

Meme doesn’t mean “funny pictures”.

My guess it’s to test out what they’re building for TESVI by getting a smaller studio to test it out in something they’ve already got design docs and scripts for.

I’m sure Fallout London feel the same way too!

I completely agree with you! But I am worried they’ll get overshadowed by Bethesda/Microsoft’s marketing budget…

They’ve gotta push hard because the official Oblivion remake in Unreal is supposedly due out sometime in 2025.