Election night 2019 / aftermath

[JustJohn]

My sister and BIL have been campaigning all week to try and unseat Raaaab C. Brexit.

Massive respect goes out to your sister and BIL (whose name, I hope, is Bill).

 

[lordsummit]

Just a few in mine. Very handily it also happens to be a pub, had a pint after I’d voted

 

[cooky1257]

Just a few in mine. Very handily it also happens to be a pub, had a pint after I’d voted

You must live in heaven.;-)

 

[Joe Hutch]

Mark,



Meme is very English. The word was coined by Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. He used the word in his first book The Selfish Gene to mean a unit of cultural inheritance that self-replicates and spreads much as genes do, though with less fidelity. (Obviously, because DNA replication is governed by enzymes that know their onions.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

Its etymology: The word meme is a shortening (modeled on gene) of mimeme (from Ancient Greek μίμημα pronounced [míːmɛːma] mīmēma, "imitated thing", from μιμεῖσθαι mimeisthai, "to imitate", from μῖμος mimos, "mime") coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (1976) as a concept for discussion of evolutionary principles in explaining the spread of ideas and cultural phenomena.

...

Dawkins wrote that evolution depended not on the particular chemical basis of genetics, but only on the existence of a self-replicating unit of transmission—in the case of biological evolution, the gene. For Dawkins, the meme exemplified another self-replicating unit with potential significance in explaining human behaviour and cultural evolution.​

Joe

The OED cites the first use of 'meme' in the internet sense as 1998:

'1998 Sci. & Technol. Week (transcript of CNN TV programme) (Nexis) 24 Jan. The next thing you know, his friends have forwarded it [sc. an animation of a dancing baby] on and it's become a net meme.'

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

Just a few in mine. Very handily it also happens to be a pub, had a pint after I’d voted

Do they ring a bell at 21:55 and shout 'Last ballots please!'

 

[lordsummit]

You must live in heaven.;-)

Well it seemed rude not to!

 

[Joe P]

Joe,

Sure, but Dawkins is the one who coined the term.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/richard-dawkins-memes

Joe

 

[lordsummit]

Do they ring a bell at 21:55 and shout 'Last ballots please!'

If I hadn’t had to work later it would have been a pleasure to bat it out and see! Might have numbed the pain at 10 when the exit poll is published

 

[Joe Hutch]

Joe,

Sure, but Dawkins is the one who coined the term.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/richard-dawkins-memes

Joe

Yes, indeed, I wasn't contesting that, just adding a bit more detail on the evolution of the term to mean 'something people copy and paste on the internet'.

 

[Sue Pertwee-Tyr]

If I hadn’t had to work later it would have been a pleasure to bat it out and see! Might have numbed the pain at 10 when the exit poll is published

Bet you wouldn't have been able to say 'disenfranchised' by then...

 

[TheDecameron]

Joe,

Sure, but Dawkins is the one who coined the term.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/richard-dawkins-memes

Joe

Is there a science of epimemetics, where memes can be silenced but expressed at a later date due to environmental factors?

 

[ks.234]

I think I need a face slap or two.

 

[david ellwood]

caning it down but still plenty of people at our polling station.

 

[cooky1257]

I'm thinking I may have a nap after my tea so I can stay awake.

 

[JustJohn]

Everyone gather round, the Joes are having a meme-off.

 

[Joe P]

Dec,

Indeed, and you never know when a recessive meme suddenly will be expressed, or what environmental cue triggered it.

Joe

 

[Joe P]

 

[JustJohn]

Yep, one or two of those would do it. But just one or two. Certainly no more than three.

 

[Joe P]

Dec,

See? That's eggsaktly what I was talking about.

Joe

 

[MikeMA]

Ha! Love the title...”Aftermath”. For some reason various scenes from Stanley Kubrick films are popping into my head, oh and Lindsay Anderson. I wonder how much crowing (over the rubble) there’ll be tomorrow?

I saw "If" several times when I was a student in '68. Great film, and I remember coveting the Bren LMG.