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©Bots
(2000)
Copyrighted
memes live in our minds, influence our thoughts, even shape
our decisions. We are hosts for these memes, yet we have no
say in their design, nor do we have the legal right to alter
them. Like sacred icons they are controlled by corporate high
priests and defended by armies of lawyers. To defile a corporate
memetic property is a sacrilege that incurs harsh punishment
in the form of legal action and exorbitant fines. Anyone caught
tampering with a corporate meme must be frightened away lest
they alter the meme pool living in the host population, with
potentially damaging consequences for the corporate profit stream.
The internet
gives unprecedented access to individuals, coupled with the
ability to track behavioral patterns, preferences and buying
habits. Businesses are flooding to this medium to exploit the
growing population of potential consumers. Corporations compete
for your attention, for access to your memory, fertile ground
where they can install their memes. Your mind is the most valuable
real estate in cyberspace. Memes infiltrate and multiply in
this real-estate, usually without the host even knowing. Squatting
in mental territory, corporations pay no rent to the owner of
that property.
We at CBots
urge you to reclaim your mental real-estate. Evict the sponging
memes by sending CBots in after them. With CBots you can spread
your own counter-memes into our collective mental space. CBots
are built from familiar pop-culture components, so they can
be readily absorbed into memory, yet they combine those elements
into surprising and contradictory new forms. Over time CBots
disrupt and dislodge entrenched memes, raising them to the conscious
level where the host can control the impact of the meme in their
lives.
Figure 1
- Noxious memes enter an unsuspecting host through sensory organs.
Figure 2
- Competing for memory, memes may cause disoriention, confusion,
or a sense of overwhelm for the host.
Figure 3
- Once embedded in the subconscious, memes can influence the
hosts actions.
Figure 4
- Transmitted orally to other hosts, memes cause the Lemming
Effect - the mass rush of hapless consumers to purchase useless
products.
Technical
Requirements: None
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