The memetic spectrum and you

The actual definition of a ‘meme’ is an idea that is optimized to spread from person to person. Most people are familiar with internet memes which are exactly this: images, videos, and behaviors that are replicated, remixed, and shared as a result of their humor or other qualities. Some people know that the term ‘meme’ was coined by Richard Dawkins.

An antimeme is the opposite of a meme: it is an idea that, by its nature, resists being spread. From the SCP Foundation:

Antimemes are real. Think of any piece of information which you wouldn’t share with anybody, like passwords, taboos and dirty secrets. Or any piece of information which would be difficult to share even if you tried: complex equations, very boring passages of text, large blocks of random numbers, and dreams…

The memetic spectrum, then, is the range between meme and antimeme. All ideas have a memetic quality: the extent to which they are optimized to facilitate or resist transmission. When an idea is expressed, the memetic quality is inherent in the expression (and this quality is inseparable from the idea itself).

It is natural to reject this information (“I will express my ideas as they exist to me rather than memetically optimize them”). This is a fallacy: intentionally or not, every idea exists somewhere on the spectrum.

Therefore, it is important that when you express an idea you consider what memetic quality is most appropriate or useful. Typically this is not ‘pure meme’ for many reasons, the simplest of which is that ‘pure meme’ is a low-bandwidth conceptual space. In fact, there are many situations where it is best to express your ideas in anti-memetic ways – unfortunately they are difficult to explain here.