World Hack

Today's world hack is about memes, and will probably require a continuous string of articles.  The idea of memes has been around for all time, but the phrase was coined in the book The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins in 1976.  I occasionally heard that it was a good book, but I was afraid to read it.  I guess I thought it was about a gene for selfishness, and I didn't want people to see me reading a book about that.  I need to keep my plans for world domination a secret.  If you saw Clark Kent reading a book about flying superheros and kryptonite, he might have some trouble keeping up the charade.

Anyway, the world hack of the day is memes, and how to incorporate them into your plans for world domination.  I define memes to be a self-replicating idea.  An idea so cool that it influences people who hear it, and then it spreads further.  The idea of Clack Kent being a secret identity that allows Superman to live among humans is a meme.  It replicated itself when I used it as an analogy above, and now it has subconsciously begun to work its magic in your brain too!  That is just one example of a world hack being a meme: living among regular people to avoid suspicion.

I would like to continue this discussion of memes by trying to invent a new one.  This blog will use memes as a tool to enhance world hacks.  Viruses spread quickly, ideas spread quickly, and world hacks must spread quickly as well.  Here is what makes a meme more effective:

• Quantity. Ideas that are reproduced more times are easier to spread.  If a meme is spread more often, it grows more quickly.  Exponential growth is fast, but when the exponent is bigger it isn't even a close fight.  An idea that reproduces ten times for every time it is received is much faster than one that reproduces twice.
• Efficiency. Ideas that increase the chances that they will be adopted by their receivers work better.  If a world hack is seen as the only solution of a problem, for example, it will spread more efficiently.
• Preservation. Ideas that influence their receivers to hold the beliefs for a long time are better.  A world hack that requires a time commitment will be preserved for a longer time.  This can benefit also in that those who have held a belief for a long time don't want to change.  They feel like they need to start over, and that their previous time has been wasted.
• Adversative. Some memes actively encourage fighting against other memes.  Not literal fighting between the carriers, but among the ideas.  If two ideas can't be held at once, they are adversaries.
• Motivational. An idea that works in the interest of its receiver is more likely to be spread.  If you touch a hot light bulb, someone who saw you do it probably won't repeat it.  If someone sees you find water on a hot day, the idea will spread.

There are other ideas that make transmission more or less effective, and they should be studied.  The world hack bag of tricks needs to grow, and studying the meme could be an effective tool.  I'll add my own to the mix:

• Setting. Ideas will spread more effectively in a setting that benefits the meme.  The hot day helps to spread the water meme described above.  Without the heat, nobody looks for water.  Sometimes the world hack is to force the world into a state that causes a meme to propagate.  "Fighting terrorism" as we know it today is a meme that would have been a stupid waste of time if it had been proposed at its current size before 911.  The attacks themselves brought the world to a state where the meme would propagate.

Memes are the ideas that spread, and they do not have a purpose.  Purpose, motivation, and good or evil are all part of the carriers of the meme.  Don't forget that a world hack is meant to use the techniques of evil against itself.  The meme moral of the story for today would be to hack the world in a way that makes it a better place.