I’m in the car-park at Bletchley Park, famed for Alan Turing, Tommy Flowers (my hero), Collosus, one of the worlds first computers, the Enagma machine they used to crack the German secret codes during the second world war. I suppose its a kind of Hajj for any computer geek like me. What has this to do with cliology and memetics; probably not a lot, other than my having to hack into my own webpage account, but lets invent some connection and see how it pans out.
Actually, first of all the German U boat plans were definatly not intended as a meme. The objectives of encryption is the opposite of memetics. It is intended to get to only the intended recipient, and absolutley no one else. On the other hand, there will always be those who want to find out what you don’t want them to know. So this is pointing to a big division in information: between the secret and the public. If secret information does get out, then it can take on viral properties as scandle and outrage, so a meme it is; albeit one that is quarantined.
Then we have memes at a higher level than the actual specific information. In securing the state (Ormond) the overall aims of defense and national security are generally well known. It is within this context that exposure of secret information might present an information hazard (Bostrom). That states have secrets and military plans is hardly a secret, even if the content is. From a memetic angle then “preserving our way of life” is a sign of cultural self-defense; a memeplex coevolved for mutual survival. So, the whole thing (ie state) has a vested interest in keeping secrets away from enermy eyes. Secret information itself might be a quarantined meme, which does not spread, but it is one that is guarded and essential to sustaining its co-memes. During the war, Nazi invasion plans threatened British culture; it was in the British interst to expose their plans, while hiding our own Operation Market Garden.
On a differnt level, cryptography, secrecy, espionage, trade-craft, and conspiracy are all memeplexes of deception around signaling and screening games. Again, encription is no secret even if the contents are; you know I have a password on this site; we all know about the existence of GCHQ and NSA; of crypto-currency and PGP; of cyber attack and of virus protection. Indeed, proclaiming (and promoting) protection by reCAPTCHA is a web-site selling point.
Memes rely on spreading for their survival, and so it would seem the more that become hosts would be a good thing from a meme’s eye view. This may not actually be the case though when viewed from the perspective of wider memeplexes. Restricting certain memes to the trusted few, allows for the preservation and spread of the wider memeplex. Without that secrecy, the wider memeplex becomes vulnerable to enermies, and insurgent memes seeking new brains to inhabit.
Those are some wild inspirations coming from a visit to Bletchley Park. But this is a blog, so any unsubstantiated waffle is acceptable here.
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