August 24, 2015

Memes and Metaphors

Narratives are collections of associated ideas. These ideas are expressed as metaphors, bits of imagination, experience, and information. The metaphors themselves are collections of associated ideas. “Meme” is another name for an idea or bit of information/imagination/experience.

Memes are patterns of energy. Patterns of associated memes could create a painting or a star.

From the human perspective, memes are symbolic representations of experienced stimuli. They are discrete quanta, bits, of information. The stimuli that create and embody patterns of associated information, whether that pattern is the Mona Lisa or the Sun, are experienced as memes by the human intellect/ego body.

[The human intellect is the human ego. It speaks for the body. It is concerned with physical and social survival. It judges information as useful or not useful to survival based on feelings of pleasure and pain.]

Words are memes. Language is the system in which those memes are expressed. The narrative form the memes create is structured according the need, purpose, and function of the speaker, writer, or artist. This manifests physically as a story, song, or work of visual art. The substance can be fiction or nonfiction, truthful or dishonest, depending on the author/artist/person and their ultimate goals.

Memes as Units of Space

Based on one’s perspective and need, a meme is the smallest bit of information a human being can perceive. (It can also be the biggest but we won’t concern ourselves with that here.)

As applied to linguistics and etymology, a meme is analogous to the Planck length in quantum physics. It delineates a memetic space. Memes can be described as units of space-time when applied to physical 3D space. They are units of time-space when applied to quantum, multidimensional space.

Memes as Units of Energy

Memes are quanta of energy. Depending on our perspective, these quanta will be experienced as positive or negative in charge. From the human animal perspective (the perspective of human biology), a particular meme will either contribute to wellbeing (pleasure) and life, or it will contribute to trauma (pain) and death.

[“Meme” is both a plural and singular noun according to memetics.]

From our perspective, positively charged memes can thus be described as life-affirming, while negatively charged memes can be described as life-negating and/or life-denying.

Memetic energies (memes) are called language from the perspective of the human ego/body. Like the words they manifest, a particular meme will have synonyms and antonyms.

Human beings experience memetic energy as the passage of time.

Memetic Space

Memes can serve multiple functions depending on context, on association, and/or on need.

A narrative (a pattern of memetic energies) consists of details. These details can be described as the narrative’s structural and masking memes.

Structural memes define a memetic space. The memetic space consists of constraints which define the narrative.

The structure of a narrative defines whether that narrative is a poem, song, sculpture, novel, movie, news article, human being, animal, plant, planet, etc.). The memetic space created by the structural memes of a narrative is occupied by masking memes.

Masking memes are memes which mask the structural memes. Masking memes are the details of a narrative (a pattern of memetic energies) which can be changed out for new details that don’t affect the narratives structure.

Masking memes are usually representations of physical 3D phenomena (physical objects and actions including thought, emotion, sensation, and behavior). Structural memes create the memetic space (excite the imagination) necessary for the narrative’s details (masking memes) to exist and communicate meanings.

Structural memes are archetypes, pure ideas, thoughforms, and platonic solids. (See also, Plato’s Theory of Forms.) Masking memes are the physical expressions of those archetypes.

Structural memes are ideas, and masking memes are the media in which those ideas are expressed.

Structural memes are the idea of a song, and the masking memes are the sounds of song. A song is a physical expression of an idea. Structural memes communicate the energy/emotion of the song’s meaning and masking memes communicate that meaning via physcal stimuli, i.e. melody, harmony, and rhythm.

Memetic Energy: Memes and the Experience of Being Human

Memes and Human Desire

The desire to consume or produce life-affirming memes is driven by the energy of libido. Libido in it’s broadest definition is life-force, chi, inspiration, holy spirit, etc. It manifests in human beings as the instinct and desire to live. It serves a creative function and is the driving force behind all creative endeavors whether they they be physical procreation, artistic expression, or scientific/technological advancement.

[Note to self: Freud linked libido with sexuality, but perhaps it should be linked to respiration. Inspiration can be defined either as the intake of breath (as opposed to exhalation) or it can be defined as getting an idea or having an epiphany. If libido is synonymous with inspiration, it could indicate a possible relationship between breathing, imagination, sexual desire, and the experience of meaning. Is serotonin the biological common denominator?]

The desire to consume or produce life-negating memes is driven by the energy of thanatos. Thanatos is the instinct to kill or die. It serves a destructive function and is the driving force behind all destructive behaviors, including murder, suicide, physical violence, war. Artistic expression can be driven by thanatos as well as libido.

Memes and Human Spatial Perception: The Energy of Space-Time

Memetic antonyms define the pairs of opposites which create the human experience. Memetic synonyms are really the same structural meme masked by physical memes.

Memetic antonyms are the pairs of opposites. The pairs of opposites are structural memes. The pairs of opposites define dualities such as Love/Hate, Positive/Negative, and Existence/Non-Existence. All other pairs of opposites spawn from these dualities. These dualities are experienced by the human entity as Pleasure/Pain, Joy/Sadness, and Love/Fear.

The pairs of opposites create space-time/time-space and provide structure to the experience of being human. Space-time is the human experience of 3 Dimensional space. Time-space is the human experience of quantum, or multi-dimensional space.

The pairs of opposites are memes which structure reality from the perspective of being human. They are memes, which, from the human perspective, seem diametrically opposed. They are actually the same energy inflected in opposite ways.

Hate leads to death and love leads to life. But the energy of hate, from the quantum perspective, is merely the energy of Love taken to an extreme. Energetically speaking Hate is the inversion of Love, and vice-versa. The two words (“Love” and “Hate”) are two sides of the same coin. This leads us to the conclusion that hate doesn’t always lead to death and love doesn’t always lead to life.

There is a point where Love=Hate. This is a singularity point where, depending on one’s point of view, love becomes destructive and hate becomes constructive. [Note to Self: Under what conditions does this occur?]

Memetic Antonyms as the Currency of Existence

[The structural meme in this example is the coin itself which, taken as a whole, carries a neutral charge and is made of (defined by) the same energy. The masking memes are the antonyms (i.e. Love/Hate, Life/Death, Pleasure/Pain, etc).]

The pairs of opposites (memetic antonyms) can be combined into a neutral whole. This can be conceptualized as The Coin of the Pairs of Opposites.

One side of the coin is positively charged, and the other carries a negative charge. Taken as a whole, the meme is neutral and made of (defined by) the same energy. This is the singularity point referred to above.

In other words, heads on the pair of opposites coin carries a positive charge. Tails carries a negative charge. The substance the coin is made of is a homogeneous, neutrally charged energy.

From the human point of view, positively charged memes are Good and create spaces (experiences and situations) of wellbeing that promote Life, while negative memes are Bad and create spaces of trauma that promote death.

Thus, positively charged memes are life-affirming, and negatively charged memes are life-negating and life-denying. The pairs of opposites are tools that we can use to create or destroy depending on our needs and desires.

[Note to Self: Quote Joseph Campbell Hero with a Thousand Faces (in first few chapters?)]

The Human Expression of Space-Time: Memetic Objects in Space

The energy of a pair of opposites flows in opposite directions from a zero point or singularity. Taken to one extreme the energy will be creative; taken to another, it will be destructive. In other words, the energy is inflected in opposite ways with opposite results. (This, of course, relies on the observer’s point of view.)

The opposing inflections of this energy create and define space (the body of the coin). This is a memetic space which then manifests a physical space. Memetic space consists of memetic objects (chair, desk, computer). Physical space consists of physical objects (this particular collection of material and energy I’m sitting on, reading at, or reading from).

The pairs of opposites are pure memetic objects. When their energy enters 3D, they split and degrade creating physical energies and objects. From the human point of view, all physical objects are half physical and half memetic.

Memetic objects contain or imply the existence of other energies. These constituent energies are like smaller coins embedded within the pair of opposites coin. Some will be positively charged and others will be negatively charged (some will be heads-up, and others will be tails-up).

The aggregation of charges of the smaller coins determines the direction of the energy flow of the meme as a whole. Heads-up memes create a creative/loving/unifying force. Tails-up memes create a destructive/hateful/separating force.

A particular meme appears to the individual consciousness as heads-up or tails-up depending on the individual’s point of view and focus (their worldview, their ethos). The same is true of collectives (subcultures) and cultures. (Culture is an an aggregate of the individual consciousnesses those who directly participate in it).

As individuals and cultures, we tend to focus on one side of the coin or another. The more we focus on positively charged memes, the more positively charged memes we experience. Likewise for negatively charged memes.

If we find ourselves in a situation that we wish to change all that is necessary is to change our pattern of focus and “flip” a few pairs of opposites. In reversing the polarity of enough memes at the appropriate scales, we create a new memetic space to experience.

This is a natural process. All sentient beings do it to one extent or another, but when it is done mindfully and with purpose it is called memetic translation. Memetic translation is the expression of a particular experience for a specific purpose . At the most basic level, the purpose of human memetic translation is to create or destroy.

Memetic translation is ongoing. The memetic spaces that aggregate Reality are in constant flux, slightly modified by all who observe it.