Re: virus: Checksums for Faithfulness of Memes

Eva-Lise Carlstrom (eva-lise@efn.org)
Thu, 24 Apr 1997 23:57:56 -0700 (PDT)


On Tue, 22 Apr 1997, Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:

> > In information communications, a checksum is . . .
> > Could we use something similar to ensure that memes transmit more
> > faithfully and mutate slower?
>
> 1. "in other words..."
> 2. "which is not to say that..."
> 3. "as you can see from..."
> 4. "as Jefferson once said..."
> 5. "contrary to what you might think..."
>
> All these phrases introduce meme error-correction mechanisms, used to
> fend off possible misinterpretation of the ideas expressed with them.
> (1) tells the listener to find a meaning that matches both phrasings.
> (2) tells him to rethink his interpretation of one phrase if it matches
> another. (3) tells him to match the meaning of a phrase to a drawing
> or example. (4) tells him that the meaning is probably typical of
> what a certain known person might say, or can be clarified by the
> context in which he said it. (5) tells him that the meaning might be
> counter-intuitive, so find a meaning for which that is the case.
>
> I'm sure there are hundreds of others, and we use them naturally.
>
> --
> Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
> for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
>

Thank you for pointing these out; it made me happy.

Eva