My previous posts have looked at how a meme consists of two noams, or behaviourally executable narrative elements.
V)φ ∧ V)∞ψ = W)
The phi-noam then is the functional component that can carry some action in response to a context, such as road safety, or washing your hands, or buying cleaning products, or worshiping God, or even suicide terrorism.
V)φ = functional behaviour
The behaviour is invoked through pattern matching the sigma stimuli according to the situation.
σ → [ V)φ ] → ρ
The other component, the psi-noam allows for the spread and replication of the meme.
V)∞ψ = share this
The psy-noam appears to operate on some similar stimulus-response to the phy-noam, except it is sigma stimulated by the opportunity to copy the meme invoking the rho response pattern of doing so. Most spectacular examples are evangelical Christians and MLM distributors who are trained to spot likely recruits. Those who like to tell you what they have bought recently, or what series they are watching might be less obvious examples, but it seems we all like to make recommendations when the relevant subject comes up in conversation.
This phenomena first came to my attention while explaining to someone about what I was researching, and when I said ‘virus of the mind’, the person I was talking to started talking about a song by Heather Nova. Several months later, the same person asked me the same thing again, and when I replied, ‘virus of the mind’, they repeated, almost verbatim, what they had said before, and the remaining conversation was earily familiar. I began to notice people trotting out their favorate anecdotes given the thread of conversation, and began to play with the idea that I could steer the conversation in a certain direction in order to get them to recant their set-piece. University Professors were the most prone to such cues, it would seem. It struck me that they were being triggered to respond in predictable ways, which is almost too much fun for a deviant social psychologist to resist toying with.
An MLM distributor, for example, would prick up their ears should you reveal that you are in need of more money, and probably tell you about their ‘unique business opportunity you should look into’. I have been involved with such “opportunities”‘ and their training seminars condition distributors to listen out for need: this would be the sigma stimulus on the psy-noam, which would invoke the rho response of some prescripted patter. New recruits would then be trained to do the same. Hence, we can generalise the spreadable component of a meme as the triggered response:
σ → [ V)∞ψ ] → ρ : invite the prospect to view the opportunity
I will put the phy and psy components back together to assemble a complete meme in a future post.
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