模倣子 Nature as Memetic Nexus, Road Bingo

 

So give me a peek at how memetics works in the cosmos, dear Jay.....
Or is memetics simply a human related system?

 Actually, funny you should ask....

Here's a thread of correspondence with a friend of mine who's trying to deal with her kids on a road-trip:

In macromemetic engineering (read my short story Electoral College Professor because I cover this, ie, “marking” etc, in terms of the doughnut  pool versus the coffee ️ pool), the idea of marking and closure are super-huge in terms of engineering a successful system that is stable, self-enforcing, and in which people willingly participate. 

So “be good and we’ll reward you later” is bad memetic engineering, just to pull that bandaid off right away. “Good” is ill-defined (poor marking) and the link between behavior and reward is weak (time and also vagueness of required behavior and concomitant reward, ie, bad closure), and that all leads to residual memetic debt. RMD is the kryptonite of memetic design.  That’s when deployment (of a meme) is weakly linked to the result one hopes to get, to give a fast-and-loose definition. Unclear requirements and unclear rewards are to be avoided, and fuzzy links between them make it worse. 

Looking for license plates or kinds of cars on the road is good, reading signs and mile markers, but parental involvement is probably super-important at this stage.  

On the positive side, what are good things to look for? Trying to force people to do things is to be avoided. Get them to do whatever they are willing to do and try to attach more complex behavior which hopefully involves you and Alex. You doing something will tend to entrain them into doing it. 

At this stage, giving or withholding treats or whatever while in the car is a ticket to trouble  land. Markers that turn into treats might be better (see below), again, it’s about closure (I can tell you about my prime pizza  Thursday experiment  if you like—it’s probably super-relevant). 

When driving, there’s stuff happening all the time, crops fields passing by, animals, road signs, cars and their license plates and the number of people in them, and on and on. This is a shared experience so it’s kind of like a memetic nexus (it is one, actually) which means it stimulates memetic interaction in a group of people. 

My kid had no siblings to fight with when we’d drive all over, but I was constantly narrating what was going by, so he never cried when we traveled, even though he was stuck in his baby seat  in the back for hours. 

Just a crazy example you might try is make a game with a bag of things you might see on the road, make cards for them, eg, license plate with one, two, three sixes, sevens, letter A, or letters A-F, ten brown cows, five baby calves, etc. these have good marking, and that’s my starting point in memetic design. 

You could put these in a bag, you and the boys each draw three (or however many) and throw them into a “bingo bag” for each  one you match. When the cards are all used up, count each bag and the winner gets a marker and start over. 

Markers could translate into a treat or reward during the trip. This is a tricky thing to be approached carefully. Get a treat that both boys share or something — more thought required 

Okay, alliances. Introducing memes that allow the boys to cooperate would be a big help, probably vital at this stage. In the game, being able to exchange cards cooperatively is a thought. Alliance memes take you and A off center stage as being in charge of keeping things regulated. 

One thought I had was that if somebody hits on a card, they can turn it in for another card immediately OR wait for one minute to try to hit on another card, and if they succeed, they can throw all their cards into the bingo bag and get three fresh ones. 

As soon as there are less than three cards in the draw bag, the round is over and the one with the most cards gets a marker. 

This “hold ‘em” rule increases engagement since everybody watches the clock  and add the rule if anybody else gets a hit during the one minute, the first player doesn’t get to bingo his card. 

Still need alliances—I may have to think about that. Something about when a boy uses his marker to send you in for treats (for example) the other boy picks what the treat will be. And you’re the one to go get it. 

One alliance I just thought of is that if one boy spots an item that’s on another boy’s card, they BOTH get to bingo a card, ie, the spotter gets to throw a free card into his bingo, and the card holder gets to bingo his card as well. 

Physical rewards are reliable, and maybe a good idea at this stage. Maybe doling out treats and drinks  in the car based on game markers wouldn’t be a terrible idea  Rounds could also be timed or based on a mile marker, for instance. 

Attaching memes to objects in the game, eg, say moo for cows (being willing to act silly  is often called for in memetic engineering—people like to have fun, even kids), or say the car  name in a silly voice (“Ben-zeee” for Benz, “BMW very much” and so on), just say every mile marker (and what the next one will be). 

This game idea I just made up off the top of my head, because it has good fundamentals: driven by a memetic nexus (features of the road itself going by), good marking and closure, potentially good engagement, open to packing the meme space (funny sounds and songs to add to each card), fairly simple structure (transition matrix), and some (underdeveloped so far) potential for alliance network building. 

You could just give out money  for markers. Say, ten dollars, divided up by how many markers you have, eg, if it’s you 5, Kid #2 8 and 黒布団 kid #1 2 then #2 gets $5.33 and #1 gets $1.33. 

So the first leg of the trip, or your first stop for food or whatever, you divvy up the money and start over when you get back on the road. 

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YIKES!!  REËNGINEERING!!

Is going good so far! We're playing bingo that we found in an activity book, so it's a little variation on your suggestion 

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Great! Remember, one valuable aspect is that the road environment driving the game as a memetic nexus takes the load off of you (and the boys). 

Also, ways of introducing cooperation and alliance building are important. Hence, the idea of being able to help others solve their cards are good. 

Memetic nexus, alliance, are super-important, in addition to marking and closure, of course. 

Let me know how it goes!

I thought of another thing to make sure to add to the game on the way back. Another member of the game (or even The driver) needs to verbally verify the sighting, eg, that a car drive by with a 6 in the license plate. This is a win-win-win-win in terms of marking, closure, memetic nexus engagement, and alliance building. 

Let me know what you think!

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Yes, humans relate to nature in a memetic manner. That's why we have religion and stuff. Nature is a memetic nexus that science and scientists relate to. In the example above, the otherwise antsy children in the car can relate to the driving environment as a memetic nexus through a structured game. The environment, ostensibly random, drives the whole memetic system. Ultimately that's a microcosm for how all human society functions.

Rocks, stars, and even cars and other machines are not memetic agents (unless you want to drag out your really really fine-guage hair-splitter). Animals, yes, especially the "higher" ones, and way, way, way more than we give them credit for. Humans interact with stuff in a memetic way, stuff that may not actually be memetic, per se. A rock is less so, a tree more so, a car, and finally stars and planets have complex observable behavior and so can drive us, our memetic systems (memeplexes) by their periodic, regular, complex stimulation.  The weather is another big one.

So, yes, there are a lot of things which are not "intelligent" or "alive" that can drive human memetic behavior, and it can even seem "two-way" (like sacrificing virgins to the sun-god and see it worked the crops grew again!) even though it's really only "one-way". Humans like to think that everything that we engage with memetically is "two-way" because if we are honest, open, and willing to admit that it might just be "one-way" that makes us seem like automata and that makes us feel less than.

Do any of those answers work? What do you think of the "road bingo game" I describe?

Macromemetic engineering using the "natural" environment as a memetic nexus driving the process.

How about that?

Does that answer your question?

Unfortunately, my friend may decide to drop several of the critical elements from the experiment, so it may not yield much in the way of data, but fingers crossed.

I can get my head around "Macromemetic engineering using the "natural" environment as a memetic nexus driving the process."