Memetic effect, cognitohazard, or infohazard?
(account deleted) 30 Dec 2013 07:20
If one of you fine, upstanding persons could please tell me the difference between these three terms, that would be great.
Memetic effect, cognitohazard, or infohazard?
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» Memetic effect, cognitohazard, or infohazard?
Summary:
What's the difference?
(account deleted) 30 Dec 2013 07:20
The Tag Guide has a section on this, in the Tag FAQ tab. Have you taken a look at that?
Oh, thanks, but wait, what's the difference between a cognitohazard and a memetic?
Cognitohazard: I saw a/touched a/smelled a/heard a thing and now I'm dead.
Memetic: I have just obtained full information of a thing, maybe a single word of a ton of them, and now I act like I am dead. But I am not really dead, because that would make me dead from a cognitohazard.
At least, that's what I think it is. It's complicated.
If something is memetic, that means it's passed on by means of cultural information. In real life, language is a 'meme' and reacting to an insult in a negative way is a 'memetic effect'.
An anomalous memetic effect is when a meme has an effect that doesn't occur in the real world. For instance, if you read a word and it made your head explode, that is an anomalous memetic effect. (Yes, you can die from fictional memetic effects.)
All memetic effects are cognitohazards, because you have to perceive information to process it in your head. But not the other way around. If you have a light bulb that makes your entire body turn green when you look at it, that's a cognitohazard but it's not memetic because there's no cultural information involved. [Though… you could MAKE it a memetic effect if the passing of information was in some way important.]
Also, goddammit, Accelerando, you should know this. :P
I read that memetics guide twice, and I still didn't get it right. >:(
I think I get it now. Thanks!
So, in Mario terms, the Dreambeats (Mario & Luigi: Dream Team) is an example of a memetic effect, and… I can't think of any cognitohazards in Mario. But the Dreambeats are definitely memetics, right? And yes, I know I replied to a two-year-old post.
The venn diagram of people who understand memetics and people who know what you are talking about may not intersect.
It's actually quite simple: All you have to do is call everything you write memetic and wait for people to yell at you when you're wrong. Which you usually will be.
Sirpudding's meme test:
Is it possible to avoid infection by failure to understand the vector (e.g. it's in a language you don't know)? If the answer is "Yes", then it is memetic.
e.g. it's in a language you don't know
Does this also apply to visual memetic hazards? For example it's a thing that affects if you see it. I feel like sight kind of counts as a language in this case.
If it is vectored by a film and you are blind, then it won't affect you either way. If it is a film and has significant visual metaphors and you are immune because you don't understand the reference, then it is memetic. If it doesn't matter if you understand what the film is about (like it's an abstract pattern or something) then it's a visual cognitive hazard but not a memetic one.
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page revision: 2, last edited: 30 Oct 2017 00:04
