Challenge #02082-E258: Limited Universal Communication
what if memes are a totally human thing?
like we meet aliens and try to explain this cultural thing, and they have nothing to compare it to, they don't have self replicating cultural phenomena. -- Anon Guest
The Human tripped on their own feet, tumbled, but tucked and rolled and recovered their footing in one nearly smooth moment.
"Sweet flips," cheered a different Human.
"Got the moves like Jagger!" The initial Human did a weird series of gyrations, causing them to hurt themselves.
Throk did not understand. "They are speaking GalStand, yet... I know not their meaning."
Human Jess said, "They're talking in memes."
"In... what?"
"Memes. Thoughts that self-perpetuate along cultural lines. You know, like... Jacarta? She can walk for herself?"
Throk only had a blank stare for her human friend.
"A blonde, a brunette, and a redhead walk into a bar... clang, clang, clang, but the rabbi ducked?"
"These are Human jokes, yes?"
"Yes. They're the earliest form of meme. People share them around because they're funny. Like... the initial chicken joke was a paired question and answer. Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side. And then it encountered a memetic explosion of variations. It was running from the chef, it was going to the library to get a buck-buck-buck, it was too low to hit the bar... The jokes hybridised. Then humanity figured out how to use captured images to express emotions and complex concepts, and there was no looking back."
"Hashtag relatable," said Throk, showing that she was keeping up.
"Yeah. Now that societies are dissipating, the meme space is solidifying into cultural realms, again. There may be millions of variations on themes, but the concept can be interpreted and used for communication."
There was a huge crash as some temporary furniture imbalanced on its way to its designated storage. "That'll buff out," cheered one of the other Humans. Someone else did a very slow applause.
"Is understanding of the source vital to understanding the... meme?"
Human Jess shrugged. "Not really. You can go on a wiki walk if you want to, but... all you need to understand is the current memetic atmosphere."
The first thing that Throk looked up was the term, wiki walk.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / DeziDezi]
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