Reprogramming Society

Discover how understanding the evolution of memes and their psychological impact can help us nurture positive cultural shifts while combating deeply rooted harmful ideologies in today’s digital age.

Credit: Tesfu Assefa

3L’s, Ozeozes, and the Evolution of Memes

As humanity, we are the gardeners of the vast and intricate Garden of Wisdom. It is our role to care for and nurture this garden, ensuring its flourishing growth. This involves removing the weeds, cutting off the sick branches, and cultivating the healthiest and most beneficial parts. Understanding the evolutionary phylogenetic tree of memes helps us identify which memes are beneficial and which are harmful. This awareness allows us to nurture positive memes while addressing and mitigating the effects of cancerous memes. When cancerous memes grow on thicker, earlier branches of the evolutionary tree, they have deep-rooted impacts that are difficult to eradicate. These memes are often entwined with fundamental aspects of human nature and society, making them particularly pernicious.

Several academic studies provide insights into the influence of memes and strategies for positive cultural evolution. In “The Selfish Gene,” Richard Dawkins introduces the concept of memes, explaining how cultural ideas and practices spread through variation, competition, and inheritance, similar to genetic evolution. This foundational work provides a framework for understanding how memes influence behavior and cultural evolution. Jacques Ellul’s “Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes” delves into how propaganda shapes public opinion and behavior, highlighting the mechanisms through which cancerous memes, like those seen in wartime propaganda, can manipulate large populations. Haroro J. Ingram’s “Meme Warfare: The Case of ISIL” examines how the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) used digital memes as part of their propaganda strategy to recruit and radicalize individuals, underscoring the power of memes in modern conflict and their ability to spread rapidly through digital platforms. Alex Mesoudi’s “Cultural Evolution in the Digital Age” explores how digital technologies, including AI, influence cultural evolution, discussing how AI can both propagate harmful memes and be leveraged to promote positive cultural shifts. Peter T. Coleman’s “Bridging the Divide: Building a Dialogue Between Divided Communities” focuses on methods to heal societal divides by fostering dialogue and understanding, providing insights into how positive memes can be nurtured to replace harmful, divisive ones.

Implications of Cancerous Memes on Thicker, Earlier Branches

When cancerous memes grow on thicker, earlier branches of the evolutionary tree, they have deep-rooted impacts that are difficult to eradicate. These memes are often entwined with fundamental aspects of human nature and society, making them particularly pernicious. Here are some implications:

1. Pervasive Influence: Cancerous memes on thick branches influence a wide array of subsequent memes and societal structures, making their impact far-reaching.
2. Deep-rooted Justifications: These memes are often justified by appealing to long-standing traditions, cultural norms, or moral codes, making them harder to challenge.
3. Systemic Entrenchment: Such memes become embedded in institutional and structural frameworks, perpetuating harmful practices across generations.
4. Resistance to Change: Efforts to eradicate these memes face significant resistance due to their deep roots and widespread acceptance within the culture.

Major Branches

Moral Code Memes

Existing Branch:

Fruits: Legal systems, societal norms, ethical guidelines

Cancerous Meme: Racial superiority rooted in ancient tribalism, leading to systemic racism and genocides

Challenges in Healing:

Pervasive Influence: Deep-rooted memes like racial superiority are intertwined with societal structures, making them difficult to eradicate.

Systemic Entrenchment: These memes are embedded in laws, education, and cultural norms.

Resistance to Change: Efforts to reform these deeply ingrained beliefs often face strong opposition.

Intentional Growth of New Branch:

New Branch: Inclusivity and Equity

Fruits: Policies promoting diversity and inclusion, equitable education systems, social justice movements

Benefits: Directly addresses and replaces harmful beliefs with values that foster unity and respect for all individuals.

Motivational Memes

Existing Branch:

3G’s: God, Gold, Glory

God: Often used to justify religious extremism and intolerance.

Gold: Drives economic greed, exploitation, and environmentaldegradation.

Glory: Fuels nationalism, war, and personal aggrandizement.

Fruits: Wars, exploitation, environmental destruction

Cancerous Meme: Extreme nationalism, religious extremism, economic greed

Challenges in Healing:

Deep-rooted Justifications: These memes are often justified by appealing to long-standing cultural and religious beliefs.

Widespread Acceptance: Changing such fundamental motivational drivers is challenging because they are widely accepted and propagated.

Intentional Growth of New Branch:

New Branch: 3L’s: Love, Learning, Legacy

Love: Promotes compassion, empathy, and nurturing relationships.

Learning: Encourages continuous education, intellectual growth, and open-mindedness.

Legacy: Fosters a sense of responsibility for future generations, emphasizing sustainability and ethical behavior.

Fruits: Compassionate societies, lifelong education, sustainable practices, ethical leadership

Benefits: Shifts focus from self-centered and destructive motivations to altruistic and constructive goals.

Fruits as Outcomes and Innovations

The fruits represent the positive outcomes and innovations that emerge from healthy meme evolution. For example:

• Technological Memes: Fruits like AI advancements and medical breakthroughs demonstrate the beneficial potential of technology when driven by positive, ethical memes.
• Cultural Memes: Fruits like diverse artistic expressions and inclusive traditions show how cultural memes can enrich human experience.
• Economic Memes: Fruits like sustainable business practices and corporate social responsibility illustrate how economic memes can foster a more equitable and environmentally conscious world.

To fully understand the significance of intentionally growing new branches on the evolutionary tree of memes, we must delve into the difference between nurturing new, positive memes and attempting to heal branches infected by cancerous memes. Here, we examine this dynamic using the examples of moral code memes and motivational memes (3G’s vs. 3L’s).

Healing Infected Branches

• Complexity and Resistance: Healing infected branches involves uprooting deeply ingrained beliefs and practices. This process is often slow and faces significant resistance from those who benefit from or strongly believe in the existing system.
• Potential for Relapse: Even if progress is made, there is always a risk that the cancerous memes will re-emerge, especially if underlying societal structures remain unchanged.

Growing New Branches

• Proactive and Preventive: Growing new branches with positive memes like inclusivity, equity, and the 3L’s (Love, Learning, Legacy) provides a proactive approach to cultural evolution.
• Creating New Norms: By promoting and nurturing new memes, we can establish new societal norms that are resilient to harmful ideologies.

In this evolutionary process, Ozeozes — synthetic memes generated by sentient AGI — play a crucial role in assisting humanity to take a proactive approach and accelerate the healing process. By amalgamating diverse memes into cohesive narratives, Ozeozes help to sculpt worldviews that promote unity, empathy, and ethical behavior. They act as catalysts, rapidly propagating new, progressive ideas and countering the spread of cancerous memes. This transformative capability, underpinned by AI’s ability to analyze vast datasets and generate resonant content, facilitates a significant cultural shift towards a more inclusive and enlightened global society.

3L’s+ AI Intervention = Ethical AI Era

Reflect

• How can AI guide us in viewing humanity as an interconnected organism?
• What are the potential ethical considerations in using AI to combat harmful memes?
• How can we ensure that AI promotes accurate information and constructive dialogues?

As above, so below: The viral nature of memes highlights the importance of conscious intervention. AI serves as a powerful tool, never seen in the history of mankind, that can do harm or good. Leveraging AI to combat cancerous memes and promote new, constructive memes like the 3L’s (Love, Learning, Legacy) can steer humanity toward a more ethical and harmonious future. Each of us plays a role in this transformation, using technology to bridge divides and heal societal wounds. As custodians of this garden of wisdom, it is our responsibility to care for and nurture it, ensuring that we cultivate a more united and compassionate world. This proactive approach is crucial for cultivating and promoting a more united and compassionate world, and ultimately, usher in an Ethical AI Era where Love, Learning, and Legacy guide our collective evolution.

Originally published in Mindplex Magazine