The rapid spread of Vox codes demonstrate SixApart has learned well from Google's gmail: Invite codes when used properly are viral marketing genius. The illusion of scarcity drives interest and demand, and the constantly increasing the number of invites available ensures that their will be ample supply to meet the demand. To top it off, people asking around who wants their "generous" offer of codes equates to free and enthusiastic advertising. Gold! That be marketer's gold!

One must conform and one must also be who they are. These are powerful conflicting memes that are prevalent in society today. This dichotomy results in a problematic situation where people are convinced that if they don't conform to the standards of society by simply being themselves that there is something wrong with them. I see so much anguish over this in too many people. It rips at them every day. I watch this and I remember I used to feel that anguish too, until one day I finally decided "Fuck it. Fuck you all. Fuck off. I'm a freak. I like being a weirdo. I'm glad I don't fit into your worldview and I DON'T FUCKING WANT TO BE LIKE YOU!". It's freeing. It's liberating. And I'm not going back.

I often wonder if there exists a thought that if one thinks it they die. This death could be a physical death or it could be an inevitable suicide brought on by having thought the thought. I wonder what such a thought would be like, how it would form, how one would come across it. What thoughts lead to it, what path does one find it on, or is there no fully describable path would it just be like a bad dream or a dark enlightenment.

The next level of this hypothetical thought would be if it could be passed on before the original thinker died, making it a fatal meme. If it is equally deadly after suffering translation, such a meme could rip through the planet, causing a global thought-pandemic. How effective it would be would depend on how much time victims had to pass the deadly thought on before they fell victim to it themselves and the power of the drive that victims feel to pass it on (which may or may not come from the meme itself). If the meme had the right combination of attributes, it would have the potential to wipe out the entire human race.

How would people go about finding a counter-meme? Unlike other contagious agents like virus and bacteria, one cannot view a meme under a microscope. One has to take in and understand the meme to attempt to figure out a cure. But once they have done that they may no longer be motivated to find a cure. It will be in their head, and they will be under its sway. One way to attempt to find a cure would be to have a group each take a piece of it and understanding that piece, with none taking in the whole thing. One could then search for an analog to viral proteins to attack with counter-thoughts using a counter-meme. Would it work? I have no clue. Maybe such an anti-meme be more successful at spreading because people would be actively trying to inoculate themselves. But, again, I don't know. I can't even imagine the attributes of the deadly meme much less what sort of anti-meme would be effective.

I find the idea of such a powerful meme intriguing, even if it is indeed an impossibility. Less powerful memes have certainly wreaked their havoc around the world. Large scale crimes such as genocide and war would not be possible were it not for such contagious meme pathologies, and most smaller scale crimes have underlying meme causes or influences as well. Memes can be incredibly powerful things, and can change the landscape of the world for good or evil and often for both. Whether or not such a doomsday meme like I described above exists, I believe that the true potential of memes has not yet been fully tapped.

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one meme to rule them, one meme to find them
one meme to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them