Richard Dawkins coined the idea of a “meme”, which is the cultural equivalent of a gene. It’s an idea that can grow and spread through a population, and mutate along the way. The most successful memes are spread more, and so over time memes evolve to become better at spreading themselves. Anything can be a meme. A meme could be a recipe, or a style of fashion, or a joke, or a technology, or a language. Most memes are helpful.
Some memes are so successful that people worship them. Chaos magicians call these memes “egregores”. Egregores rule our society. Capitalism is an egregore, and so is the USA, and so is Jesus. These are ideas so powerful they shape the course of history itself. Why did the Conquistadores try to exterminate south american religions and teach the locals about “God”? Because a meme told them to. Why did the crusades happen? A meme did it.
Egregores are powerful creatures capable of steering the course of humanity. They are arguably alive, and are capable of taking intentional actions to secure their own survival and dominance. They are worshipped by billions of people, and are capable of having a personal relationship with every one of their worshippers, because they are spread across millions of brains and have access to the computational power of all those brains at once.
Okay, fine, I’ll prove that the gods exist.
Richard Dawkins coined the idea of a “meme”, which is the cultural equivalent of a gene. It’s an idea that can grow and spread through a population, and mutate along the way. The most successful memes are spread more, and so over time memes evolve to become better at spreading themselves. Anything can be a meme. A meme could be a recipe, or a style of fashion, or a joke, or a technology, or a language. Most memes are helpful.
Some memes are so successful that people worship them. Chaos magicians call these memes “egregores”. Egregores rule our society. Capitalism is an egregore, and so is the USA, and so is Jesus. These are ideas so powerful they shape the course of history itself. Why did the Conquistadores try to exterminate south american religions and teach the locals about “God”? Because a meme told them to. Why did the crusades happen? A meme did it.
Egregores are powerful creatures capable of steering the course of humanity. They are arguably alive, and are capable of taking intentional actions to secure their own survival and dominance. They are worshipped by billions of people, and are capable of having a personal relationship with every one of their worshippers, because they are spread across millions of brains and have access to the computational power of all those brains at once.
Egregores are real. How are they not gods?
That’s a lot of words to say “I make shit up.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egregore