Memes - The Black Swan of 2016

in #memes8 years ago (edited)

Some of us think that wealthy, hidden families rule the world. I'd say that we rely on data and numbers too much. But there are just certain forces in this world that you just can't anticipate all that much in advance. These are black swans. If you're unfamiliar with the term, here's the brief explanation found in Wikipedia:-

  • The disproportionate role of high-profile, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance, and technology.

  • The non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to the very nature of small probabilities).

  • The psychological biases which blind people, both individually and collectively, to uncertainty and to a rare event's massive role in historical affairs.

The art of memes has been collectively perfected for so many years in the dark crevices of the Internet, and 2016 was the year when it was unleashed. By the masses, for the masses. What else to change the course of the future, if not through memes on social media? It's the new world order. Even the biggest meme of all became leader of the free world.

Go ahead, desensitise your mind. Or switch out. Quit being a spectator. Make a conscious decision to build the future of content and communities on Steemit. Winter is coming, and welcome to the last bastion of mankind. Take back what's yours - your mind!

Steememes are better.

Note: This video is not mine.


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Thanks! I've yet to get into discord (a bit hesitant for live chat stuff, just a preference) A token will be sweet - anyway to do this on Steemit.chat? :D

Hi Kevin, it seems Discord is after you hehe, please try, there is private chat system that works very well :)
Glad you got this award, I got and it was very good to make be write better :) and boomed my self-esteem (worth million times more then Steem).
Keep on your good work
Cheers

Hi @keving, First of all, thanks a lot for supporting and reestem my post, your token of appreciation is a big stimulation to my motivation to write better and more for the community.
I love memetics and I still remember the first meaningful post I think 20 years ago by Glenn Grant, Memeticist.
I don't resist to post here some good part of is post in Memetic Lexicon about memes reaction type:

Conservatism: automatically resist all new memes.

Orthodoxy: automatically reject all new memes.

Science: test new memes for theoretical consistency and (where applicable) empirical repeatability; continually re-assess old memes; accept schemes only conditionally, pending future re-assessment. Radicalism: embrace one new scheme, reject all others.

Nihilism: reject all schemes, new and old.

New Age: accept all esthetically-appealing memes, new and old, regardless of empirical (or even internal) consistency; reject others. (Note that this one doesn't provide much protection.)

Japanese: adapt (parts of) new schemes to the old ones. vector: A medium, method, or vehicle for the transmission of memes. Almost any communication medium can be a memetic vector. (GMG)

Villain vs. Victim: An infection strategy common to many meme-complexes, placing the potential host in the role of Victim and playing on their insecurity, as in: "the bourgeoisie is oppressing the proletariat" (Hofstadter). Often dangerously toxic to host and society in general. Also known as the "Us-and-Them" strategy.

Hahah thanks for this - remember seeing this quite some time ago!

And like your stuff - something fresh to consider, and probably applicable too. Anyway, blockchain's the time to experiment with new ideas.. by the way how do I reach you over in steemit.chat? @charlie777pt

I wish I had more time(I use it all almost fro writing for steemit and go to steemit.chat.
But I've learned a lot in the voice Hangouts about steemit on Discord
I always try no to miss this one at in Discord at 6PM CST usually everyday, please join

I prefer an asynchronous (fancy word for casual) environment so I've yet to even get on Discord. Which is why i've never got out of steemit.chat for "keeping in touch".. (btw, wouldn't this solution give you more time?)

You make me speak the truth hehe, I don't like typing in chat hehe
Too fast for my chicken writing :(. It make me feel my ideas in a funnel :)
2 more days to write my next post and I will meet you on steemit.chat
I really love your idea of one man guild, very liberating :)

Haha first time I've heard about chicken writing? Np, will be around :)

@charlie777pt, Firstly, many thanks indeed for your very considered reply. It is much appreciated. I have tried to be quiet about the steemit structure as it just seems to get people annoyed and that is not why I am here!
I could not reply to you as we got the end of our permitted string (nothing to do with blockchain, a steemit limitation), the leverage of power is not a blockchain construct, it is a steemit construct.
I am a supporter of steemit and we have all seen the confessions of defects in the steemit structure and the abuses which have been manifest.
I have heard more excuses than an Irish priest.
I have heard denials as long as War and Peace.
Everyone knows ... and I mean everyone! It is a question of integrity.

I would love to see your wish came true, but Steemit this is a DAO with internal capital, making it a Hybrid Structure hierarchic to Objects and possibly equalitarian in relation to Man if people and small communities keep fighting for it.
In my next post, I 'll try to propose solutions to make it more equalitarian and just, but if we make the world of objects equalitarian is only possible in organizations without private owned capital.
Total equalitarian voting power in Steemit would mean it dissolved for breaking contracts with investors that made possible the dream of the creators to share it with us.
So maybe some day the utopia of equalitarian societies in relation to objects is a possible realizable utopia :)

I hear you and, please, I have raised a shit load of investor funds and so I do get shareholder interests - why else would I propose a different class of steem?
I get it and I think you are over-complicating it.
Question: what would investors say if you proposed that tomorrow their steem was worth, say, $4? (c.16x today) But their influence was worth 8 times less?
It is an interesting conundrum and I can make them happy!
Problem is that in a communication business, there is nobody listening because the person who is writing now has no place.
Why?
SP
Does/should that matter if the objective is value?
No.
Dan reads a lot of my posts but cannot afford to vote because then I might say that he voted (which I did).
So, the Millennials think they have got it sussed ... yes, brilliant idea, bad structure, diabolical abuse by the whales ... we all know this!
It is not sustainable when you are a business man like me and you can be arsed to get off your butt and derive some originality of thought

I agree with your position I just take a look at the constraints of reality and I'm trying to think of alternatives that go in line with your thought, but I see a lot of barriers to that are difficult to overcome.
And it is in hands the hands of writers and readers of Steemit to see that is rich quality content that makes the global level of Steem go to the sky :) as well as this open discussions that help to shape the vision of steemit.
Maybe this a bad phrase but:
The conflict of self-interest guilds based on money and the equalitarian guilds based on people, actually is also a reflection of the conflicts of the emanating from the conflict between creators and investors.

OK, here is a thought for you to consider:
Guilds - what do they really do? I know but do YOU know?
Content: What is steemit content?
Clue: both are fucked and reduce the value of steemit.
So ... if you had $40million, would you buy steemit?
Or ... if you had $5million would you start your own steemit and do it properly?
Yes, it is a leading question but it should explain why I say the things I say

No I wouldn't buy(because I'm a very bad business man), I was just writing on Steemit :).
Just bought the same quantity Steemit offered me in the beginning
I just can imagine the position of people buying at $4, but if the community finds its way, maybe everybody will be happy.
So let's all fight for it with discussion and consensus.
Please bring your ideas to Discord at 6PM CST usually every day, please join and see if you can help and participate and be heard. You will be welcome :)

Very interesting - the benefit of 20/20 hindsight ... 2008 was a classic whereby it was easy to see after the event. Given that the US is once more packaging mortgage debt products; given that water is the new debt in terms of population control; given that retirement is becoming less affordable and that equity markets are self-generated bubbles through superannuation/pension systems, how does one invent one's own paradigm?

In a way, Bitcoin is like a black-swan machine, funding other crypto projects in hopes that a small percentage will give exponential returns. In that sense, Steemit is also a black-swan machine of its own, funding on the individual level.

A black swan is generally understood to be a downward market which has drivers outside any generally included criteria.
If you stand back from steem and assess what its value is based upon it is very like an equity - all future possibility in the social media platform.
You know my view on this and I have read yours which, whilst I acknowledge your view of diversity, the analyst would have a very simple question: 'where the fuck is it?'
The true value of steem right now is going south because of the paucity of distribution (90% owned by under 400) and the irrelevance of the currency outside steemit.
steem is lucky to be worth $40million in total cap because the development is all tech oriented as there is nobody who is being user-centric.
'busy' will only make the focus on fundamentals a little fuzzy for a brief period.
I did read your paper which 'covers' the thing - I agree with your outlook. I just disagree with the assessment of what is actually going on.
Were it not for the rewards, would anyone use steemit? Of course not, the functionality is crap (I used to work in digital media) - and the system is so tech driven that a small change requires enormous github attention.
I feel sorry for the founders in that if they were given the chance, they would reconstruct the system.
It is self-defeating, hence user-retention and distribution.
(I run public companies and have done extensive analysis)

I see - that's interesting (i'm not an econs / finance / business type of person, and obviously analogise things too much at times). Personally, I think its just rudimentary atm and will be worked on, hence the beta sticker on the website. What do you think would be the best course of action for Steemit / community to do to improve your confidence on the platform? (without a reboot, of course)

Reward holders of unjustifiable leverage and flatten the playing field. The exponential curve from an objective point of view is just crazy.
Sure, people might have mined steem for a short period of time, others may have invested. These people deserve a power leverage position but nowhere near the scale that they have. It is this which has caused the infighting over the past few days.
Early adopters know other early adopters and so intravote - understandable.
When intravoting assures the non-distribution of the steem, people see this and they can see that their value is several hundred thousand times less than someone else's.
This is not social media, it is a feudal system with appalling structure. These same people rail against the power elites and yet the mirror is a betraying article. It is dysfunctional. Anyone who understands the structure would rip it limb from limb in a public environment.
The structure rewards shit content and ignores quality. (FYI, my posts, on steemit, have hit page 2 of a Google news search on Aleppo, competing against every news service, meantime, a C&P from a newspaper in steemit gets hundreds of votes and rewards - my posts exposed this crap as fake news 3 or 4 days beforehand)
Social Media and Game Theory may be driving the machine but they are poor bedfellows.
Issue some A steem to differentiate, adjust the leverage, get user-centric and this will fly. If Blockchain is the focus, steemit will end up with 400 people admiring magnificent code whilst another platform enjoys 40million users enjoying each others company.

Hi @ebryans, I really understand your point of view, but there is a big problem that the blockchain has not the solution yet.
In the blockchain we can have equalitarian small societies between Man, but the blockchain right now is still a hierarchic society in relation to Objects(things) and there is a long way till we can solve this dichotomic problem.
This singularity and technological Utopia, where the world of Objects is still hierarchic, doesn't bring the solution to this problem of egalitarianism in society.
But there are some improvements we can make it be more just because Steemit can be a model in the future that the blockchain can be a more just society because for me the real meaning of Justice is Equality and not the point of view of the Power as it is today in society as an all.
Some utopias can be possible if people give enough attention to it:) but we still have a long way to go.

It also has to do with the voting power quadratics (if that's the term). So in a way, the exponential difference in influence seem to be one of the main problems atm. But that is designed to go against sybil attacks. Maybe a hybrid solution.

Then again we're just tlaking about 6 months of distribution here. for a 5% shift, plus securing good accounts in the network.. i personally think it's decent progress with such a barebones platform. (could've been better, this part, i agree)

Hahahah !! Yeah !!!! Talk more trash and let memes boop it all out . This made me really laugh after too much daily seriousness about politics . Take your brain back ! Make more Memes and I am still chasing my pussyhat I didn't get , yet.

This looks so over my head. I need to learn about many more things.

Haha maybe it's because I was trash-talking. There's really not much to learn about it, except this: being outrageous in social media can lead to some kind of popularity amplification just by having people flood the information well with memes (which are just essentially some kind of brand awareness of sorts). Even news outlets are rushing pieces out the door these days without even caring about the nature of the info that they're using.

Oh lol I get this one better 😊.
Everyone is rushing to grab a share of the attention economy and memes together with short form "whatever seems catchy these days" are put out in a hurry just to grab that attention.

@kevinwong, you are quite right about news outlets throwing things out the door with little or no QC, have you ever stopped to ask why this might be? More importantly, have you thought about the news outlet's enterprise value as a result? Reputation is earned the hard way and it is lost the easy way. Do you see the parallel?

Wow. I like the way you articulate your thoughts. If only I could have more folks like you comment on my posts then I might just become a smarter being.
But there's little chance of you seeing my posts since i'm new here and you're not following.
I wish.
Excited to read more from you! Thank you!

@smalltalk, you have absolutely no reason to elevate me thus! I do now follow you and thoroughly look forward to being enlightened by your insights!
Social Media is a social sharing environment in which we all have equal value as people. I am probably a bit longer in the tooth than you and have lived in all sorts of places - gives me perspective and context - but not value - we are the same.
Namaste!

My reply was going to sound flattering so let me just say...
Thank you!

This one went viral on Facebook over the last 24 hours.

Hahah cool, it's quite effective!

@kevinwong, this is the problem. There is a very technical term for your explanation of the algorithmic multiplier effect of power and that term is 'bollocks' - I do not understand why people continue to flop out this inexplicable bullshit. Quadratics - which liar asked you to drivel that out?
The iniquitous leveraged power scenario is steemit-made. End of fucking story.
Shall we all move along?
As I wrote earlier today, I have heard more excuses than an Irish priest.
I am in my 50's - not some gullible millennial!
Seeing as you have tried to explain the system, perhaps you could look at my account and explain, very concisely, how I get from where I am to where you are, explaining as you do so, the metrics behind the value of one of your votes compared to one of mine.
You have a rep of 72, mine is 62, your rep is 16% higher than mine.
To any sane person, you have a job on your hands!
I have been trying to avoid this conversation lately but you have lit a flame and you had better give a very good answer ... or swap places.

The iniquitous leveraged power scenario is steemit-made.

There's no doubt in anyone's mind that this is true - it's part of the curved-model design to fight against sybil attacks (as explained earlier) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybil_attack

I'll be interested to see other social media blockchains try to solve this problem using a lesser "iniquitous leveraged power scenario" in the beginning of the roll out. That may be the case if the system is pay-to-play. But not Steemit's f2p model.. which is why i suggested a curve-linear hybrid be part of the solution before it becomes anything else

Once more, I would like you to know that I am so sorry for what I wrote. I mean you no ill-will and understand you to be a person of repute and gravitas. Please accept this offering so that we can move forward. I am not prone to verbal assault but should you ever need someone beside you, please know that I am a loyal soldier for truth and integrity!
Namaste!

It's alright, no harm done voicing out what you had in mind :)

Thank you for your generosity of spirit. It is much appreciated and I am more than pleased that we can draw a line under this.
Furthermore, there are gaps in my understanding - I am more a sales/marketing /politician type of operator nowadays - I believe we all want success foe steemit and we will all rise on the tide.
Namaste once more!

And so your response is to downvote another of my posts!
Gotcha!
This is the behaviour which really gives every journalist in the world to make a mockery of steemit.
I invite you to withdraw your behaviour.
Should you refuse, I shall bestow upon you a Pulpfictionesque display of wrath which you might wan to not experience. I am a very nice person until I am wronged in ways such as this.

This post has been ranked within the top 25 most undervalued posts in the second half of Jan 22. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $24.12 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.

See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Jan 22 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.

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