Transcript:

It makes me think of me me. All about ME. Look how clever and funny I am! An open source web bumper sticker.....if you will.
Ahem
Raul
Sent from my iTeléfono Quatro
 
Boob! It means boob in Turkish! :)))
 
Funny
Sent from my iPhone
 
First Thought -- Is it some kind of cartoon from Japan?
Second thought -- is it supposed to be me-me?   I knew a photo stylist named meme once.
 
For me a meme in the Internet era is a mental concept or construct that is conveyed through cyberspace and has the capacity has the capacity to go viral, infecting countless unseen and otherwise unconnected minds and turning them directly or indirectly, for good or for bad, to some new purpose.
 
I have never known what "meme"means. I sort of think it's in the same ballpark as "trope", but I'm probably wrong. Since I don't know its meaning, I actually never, ever think of it except when I see it in print somewhere. 
Hope you're well, dear madman,
Tommy Fitz
 
Unfortunately my first thought was "have to look that one up" Probably not much help for you but expanded my vocabulary a bit. 
Love you,
Michelle
 
I think computer language - a bounced back file or something that couldn't de-code or translate. I also think of my friend from New Zealand who said they call girls' vaginas - meme's or (mimi's) - they also call maxi pads - nappy's, or as we say napkin - giggles abound, would you like a napkin? really
 
a concept originated by richard dawkins that refers to parallels between biological evolution and cultural trends.
a current popular idea/phrase.
 
 
 
 
This is a topic that is of interest to me. Two years ago I read Roland Barthes, Mythologies, in reference to my interest in Spacesuits.  I think semiotics , signs and signifiers, mythology, meme are gradations on a theme. I’ll have to refresh my memory (I have the article about Rocketmen that Barthes wrote somewhere) but the idea was that rocketmen were stand ins for contemporary culture/mythology.
 
Meme contagious content
Sent from my iPhone
 
Hi Micheal,
Good to hear from you, and great question.
When I here the word meme, I think:
Contagious, kernal, visual, audio or textual information, repetition,
ambiguity, porousness, adaptability, binding, power, energy
 
I generally think, rather judgementally I guess, that the person using the term 'meme' very probably has little to no knowledge of psychology, social psychology, anthropology, sociology, linguistics or philosophy.

What does the idea of meme do other than restate the idea that ideas have social appeal and then go on to obscure the question of why they might have appeal or spread?

Does it tell us how memes interact, of what their significant basic units are, or of what the rate, or cause, of mutation of memes might be?
ie is there any effectiveness in the viral or genetic analogy?
Does it tell us anything about how memes combine, or how they are interpreted, or what the process of interpretation is?
(as to me it seems that meme theory generally confuses reproduction with replication. Humans tend to reproduce and transform rather than replicate - the error rate is high.....)

What is the effect of the environment on memes, or memes on the environment?
How does struggle for the control of the channels of communication effect memes or the transmission of memes?
Does power, status, group membership or the capacity for violence have anything to do with propagation?
and so it goes

the idea of memes seems to eliminate more questions than it answers...
And as Alan suggests it deflects us from work, or from physical engagement with the world....

But perhaps in the last couple of years someone has done something with it....
 
"24/7"
I remember the first time I heard that and had to think about what it meant because I really hadn't heard it before, but within the next week I had already heard it used many times. I appeared to burst onto the "cultural" landscape.
 
 
meme gabor- larry jo- you. 
I had a client once share her birth story
she was laboring on a bed and her husband and midwife were standing by the door and whispering softly.  The woman had been laboring for sometime on her own and their talking hadn't been distracting- it was comforting.  But then she had a really really intense contraction and she needed more attention from them- but her sensations were so intense she couldn't really make the words she wanted to - all she could manage was to wail out MEEEEEEEEEEE.
 
Snowcrash
 
Hi, Michael,
When I first began teaching, I had a high school student who had  -  as far as I understood then or understand now - created her own language.  The word 'meme,' was, I believe, fundamental to that language. I may be making this up, but I think she used the word, with different inflections, to connote different meanings. Perhaps she just liked the way the word sounded?  I haven't thought of this student or this word, which she used with unnerving frequency, in fifteen years, and it took me a few moments to recall where I had heard the word before. I will pass this email on to her, however. 
Laura B.
 
What is meme?
I think I need to improve my vocabulary, as I have no idea what the word means!  :)
 
You mean like an idea spreading, fad, or at lowest, an Internet meme?  Like the particular annoying one Planking (not that all are) or even worse Breading Cats?
 
"the same" in French
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mommy mommy mommy mommy
Memory
Me(me) think of Scott Gillette, who might have used the word meme in 1994 when I met him.
He doesn't use it now.  Of that I feel 99 memecent sure.
Meme a shared hallucination of similarataneousness between strangers thoughts and bits
Meme me a margarita motherfucker
Me me me me
We we we we
Pee on the meme
Meme your way down the mississippi cause it takes us all on a little ride like a raft that will only be useful before the cardboard holding it together gets wet
"It's become a meme"
Was anything ever born meme?
 
Mimi, the birth name of an IGM-that's a "i got mine" type of fella.
Xoxoxoxox
Sent to you from my soul
 
A meme is an idea or information that spreads through the internet. I supposes many memes go viral.
Susan
 
“meme  (miːm)
—    n
—     
an idea or element of social behaviour passed on through generations in a culture, esp by imitation”
 
I think of "meme" as punishment inflicted on a victim by those in power, not just to hurt, but to humiliate, to shame the victim.  The injury (not revocable) inflicts disability to a part of the body, inflicts pain and shame, diminishing the victims, reminding them of the power that inflicted the injury.  Meme: Inflicted irrevocable loss.  
I think of a hand severed, eyes gauged out .  The pain and hardship of the loss suffered carries the feeling of shame with it; to meme the victim marks him for life, and removes him from society. Meme: A sort of banishment.  The burden of physical hardship, the psychological and social burden, the shame,  is a way to diminish a person or persons, subduing human beings by the judgement of power.  I think of meme as power, action of some humans to inflict injury on others. 
The above, unfortunately, is what I think of when I hear the word meme.  Meme: An ugly bussiness that . . . Good luck with the project,
LO

OOOps:  Since my spelling is not up to it, I thought of "mame" (when you meant meme), and when I saw you spelled it "meme" I, of course, thought I spelled the mutilating word wrong  (showing my insecurity); so, I corrected the word "mame" in my e-mail to "meme" as you had spelt it, still thinking you meant the mutilating word. Perhaps you can use the response as a divination.  There you have it.  Human error is important in any project.or I could think of meme (as you meant it) as motivational, illustrated by the sentences that follow: ideas that people adopt because they perceive some self-interest in adopting them. Strictly speaking, motivationally transmitted memes, like the motivation to mame, is self-replicating in the efficiency of a society to preserve its power over the action of some members.  Meme: a motivational mode of control.
LO
 
ok resisting the urge to google a nice short definition. term Off the top of my head,
It's an "infectious" idea or term that people often share and pass along to others.
I wrote the above before going and looking at wikipedia to make sure i wasn't completely clueless on it. It's not quite right but I'll stick with it, it gets the basic idea across.
-Matt
 
We are leaden; I say unto you we are borrowed time, we borrow the uncanny, we are borrowed dust, we organization information, information travels from dust to dust, information deteriorates, we erect potential wells, we are potential wells, potential wells are tunnels, we tunnel among us, we are always already under erasure, we are always already within the erasure of the sign of erasure. I say unto you, we are among the first to recognize there is no salvage. We await your planetary notice, this will come but among us all, the physics are impossible, inconceivable, the physics are the physics of stardust, the physics are the physics of death. This is within speech and without speech, the physics are the physics of death, and speech murmurs, the invasion of quantum noise, speech murmurs we are walking Armageddon.
 
 
 
 
As I said when we first talked about this, I thought of the French word which has multiple definitions---beginning with meaning "same"
Quoting website below- see a couple of definitions:
http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/meme.htm
The extremely versatile and useful French word même can be an indefinite adjective, indefinite pronoun, or adverb, and is also used in some expressions. Même has various meanings depending on where and how it is used.
Indefinite adjective
When used as an indefinite adjective, même's meaning differs according to whether it precedes or follows the noun it modifies:
1) Before a noun, même means "same":

  C'est la même chose !
  It's the same thing!
 ----
  J'ai lu le même livre. 
  I read the same book.

  Il aime les mêmes programmes.
  He likes the same programs.
 
I think of vast, randomly propagating ideascapes that flicker, pulsate and occasionally surge up into the supernovas of collective understanding.
good luck with it! - Brian
 
frank: meme or nene, meme in spanish mean nothing
 
Well apart from flashmobs which I know are a physical example of this concept, my honest first thought when I saw your message was:  'me me pick me.'
Sent it off to several strange friends of mine.  Hope it all sounds great when its done.
Jump soon,
D
 
this is from Stef:
what does meme make you think of
meme makes me think of memory and of threads and of derrida's "trace,"
 
Adverb
As an adverb, même is invariable, emphasizes the word it modifies, and means "even, (to go) so far as to."

  Même Jacques est venu.
  Even Jacques came.

  Il avait même acheté un billet.
  He even went so far as to buy a ticket.

  Ils sont tous partis, même le bébé.
  They all left, even the baby.

  Je l'ai vu ici même.
  I saw him in this very spot.
"me me me me me me me me (etc etc)
and a brain virus
and it doesn't mean anything, it's a word somebody made up -- oh there's this word and this is... and it probably has no connection to what the word really means... it's culture fast-forwarded.  but that said, LOL-cats is one of the greatest things ever invented."
 
i think of candy like meme-n-m's with peanuts
 
this is from Manny:
what does meme make you think of
(dictated to secretary stef)
I have the idea that is some kind the concept of idea kind of viral
behave kind of pattern that repeat himself between people, that
spreads throughout a culture either cultural inheritance or others
ways....
 
Clearing your throat before you sing
 
Indefinite pronoun
Le même as an indefinite pronoun means "the same" and may be singular or plural.

  C'est le même.
  It's the same.

  Elles sont toujours les mêmes.
  They're always the same.
 
When I think of meme, I think of iteration, of the trope of cleverness, of tropes in general. Clever, because like 'something going viral,' the metaphor, not meataphor, almost makes it, holds forth; meme of course is a meme as well, is viral. But this doesn't hold, doesn't hold up; liked Wired magazine, it's full of incandescence on the order of 'Forget all you know about [x]' - a form of hyperbole that damages thinking in depth. If anything meme is surface, and a metaphor of the surface; it carries the body into the instantaneous, where the body is imminent. The meme slides, slices, carries the simplified simulacrum of the characteristics of evolution otherwise, but carries nothing, is empty, emptied. I end up thinking of the slogan or the hook, or all those transitive aphorisms on Facebook that dissolve upon closer reading or thinking. We're skittering from surface to surface and for the first time in my life I'm glad of longer theory and its care; if we're ever to heal the slaughter, wars and extinctions on this planet, we have to dig thusly, and that's not a meme, that's labor.
 
Monkeywrench for a cultural mechanic.  I am a wordsmith, therefore I am a memetic
engineer.
 
Thinking of the meme connotes something that insinuates itself into the mind and changes it forever for that contact.  The change might be larger or smaller, but the change is evident. And, as with ripples in a pond, the change is recursive; it propagates and folds within and without, whether it is as fundamental as language to the latest funny cat video.  Memes are culture that alters our soul-DNA.
 
The very first answer that came to my mind upon reading the question
was "bullshit". I associate memes with advertising, marketing, fads...
just general bullshit which I try my best to avoid. Probably a
simplistic view of things but after so many attempts trying to be
open-minded about all sorts of things and it leading nowhere, the
realization creeps up that life can be easier, and one's focus can be
improved, when filtering out as much extraneous information as possible.

Distraction! That's what I mean... Filtering out as much distraction as
possible, and memes seem to want me as distracted as possible.
 
Sometimes I think of people who are not terribly interested in ideas or in anything that they are saying and doing; whatever words they use they are saying "me me"
and sometimes I think of Angela Lansbury singing the title song of Mame

Singing in the shower. 
people with a strong- usually offensive - sense of entitlement.
Sounds like a cool project.  Sorry we got close to phone tag- and didn't actually connect a few weeks ago- I am out the door now to go visit Jasper in college- 
I just had a two day visit with Bill Krauss and Stephanie Voss- his partner- we shared shots of really good tequila while watching the presidential debate- the debate sucked of course but the shots and the friendship was great.
I miss you- 
Emily
 
The same
Mirror image
Me doubled
Mama
Grandmother
Mime
 
Meme: I think, "media theme," one of those recurring phrases, images or behaviors we see everywhere once we've seen it once. Meh, marriage proposals by flash mob. Something about things that are ubiquitous and trivial. I don't think one would say, "The Arab Spring had a freedom meme," even though it probably did.  
cheers, Stephanie
Hey Michael,
Sorry I didn't respond to this earlier. I was thinking about that word over and over! It made me initially think of beaker from the Muppets (showing my youth haha). And then I thought of things from car horns to opera voice preparations. I hope that helps, and hope you're doing well! I'll be checking your website for information about your piece!
 
I think of the actual definition of meme, which I read long before I ever told at a lolcat:
a meme is a unit of cultural information.
 
I think, therefore I'm viral.
{ c }
 
2) After a noun or pronoun, même emphasizes that thing and means "(one)self" or "personified":

  Il a perdu la bague même.
  He lost the ring itself.

  Je veux le faire moi-même. (stressed pronoun)
  I want to do it myself.

  Elle est la gentillesse même.
  She is the epitome of kindness, She is kindness personnified.
 
Michael, I think of it this way: Cultural bacteria. (you can't kill viruses, but memes can die out, like a bacteria strain).
My dos centavos.
jb
_____
It makes me think of a vocalist warming up, the Republican Party, a two year old,and that's it …
 
 
mattbaya: sure, i have to admit I never really 'got' that term that well
12:26 AM me: I know meme is such an allusive idea thats what I am going after
12:27 AM ellusive
12:28 AM interested in the unknowing
 thats the point
 
i think of something that spreads across the culture... actually fairly indistinct in my understanding... something having meaning as per morpheme, smallest unit carrying meaning... don't know how to pronounce it, i.e., is it a pun as in Me Me or is it straightforward (MEEM)
 
It would say unto you, it is languor, it is sinking, it is neurasthenia that reveals and revels in, the truth, which is that of a longing, of which death and its escape form only a surface phenomenon. For this longing inheres, is inherent in the very project we set ourselves, which is that of coagulation, and beyond coagulation, form and inscriptive processes bearing the familiar fount of Aristotelian logics and laws of distribution, so that we may take account, so that we may be accounted-for - it is this accounting, this belief in accounting, that grants us meaning, beyond that of clean and proper reproduction, a meaning which for us means, that we are more than stardust, that we are surplus, beyond all accountancy.

What I thought is that I have no idea what it means- so I looked it up.  Learn something new every day!
 
Expressions with même
à même
right on, in, from; in position
 
à même que
capable of
 
de même que
just/right as (something happened)
 
même que (familiar)
moreover
 
quand même
even so, anyway
 
tout de même
even so


Ça revient au même.
That amounts to the same thing.
 
C'est du pareil au même. (informal)
It's always the same; Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

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