Guide To The Second Edition Dyad Classification System

The field of memetics is, if nothing else, horribly flimsy. It is a new, frantic kind of science for which no answers are truly certain, and uncertainty is the first and last line of protection. The term "meme" — itself ill-defined — is a parallel to the gene: it represents the smallest unit of cultural information, be it explicit in thought or implicit in memory. Of course, the meme and gene are not complete parallels. For one, the meme's behaviour is easier to compare to a protein, but its influence is akin to the gene.

The importance of individual memes cannot be understated, but their influence is best expressed when in groups. Denominated meme-clusters, meme-complexes or memeplexes, they are the DNA chains of culture. Ideologies, cultural concepts, art currents, business strategies, and methods of study are all different expressions of meme complexes that drive our collective consciousness forward.

Let us now introduce the concept of a prion. A misfolded protein, with the invasive capability to spread its misfolded shape toward other proteins, breaking down biological processes as it does. Prions are linked to certain neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's, among others, most of which are yet incurable.

Translate this concept to the cultural realm. Perhaps you think of invasive ideologies: communism or capitalistic greed may come to mind, depending on which side of the world you are. While this is an apt comparison, the devastating influence and unstoppable spread of memetic illnesses are orders of magnitude greater: the vector for spread could be as simple as a single word, and its power over the infected akin to direct control over the mind.

The Department of Anti-Memetics was founded when the realization you're now feeling swept through the higher echelons of the Authority. Someone in the higher brass scrambled together a team of expert psychologists — but totally ignorant memeticists — and told them to figure out how to stop the perfect mind-virus. Such an illness could undo a century of careful structuring an organization. Chains of hierarchy could be abused to spread the malign to hundreds in mere instants, and we'd be ill-prepared to face it.

Truth is, we are still ill-prepared, but the reality of our situation is that pathogens like the one I described are rare to the point of non-existence. Much like the perfect virus, the perfect meme can only exist through devilish ingenuity and the action of a human hand, a matter for our successors. Our current understanding is too flimsy to warrant worrying that much. We are Alexander Flemings to a world full of disease — but what we have in our hands is penicillin.

Most of the memes we know today are, in reality, cognito or info-hazards: Anomalous consequences to the perception and interpretation of a visual stimulus or information, altering our way of thought in a manner often irreversible. Surprisingly for a field as new as memetics, we often rely on the research of those that came before us to parse even the simplest things. The Dyad Classification is merely a modified guide against possession, scanned from a disintegrating vellum scroll from an European site and transcribed into readable English, as should be evident from the antiquated look of its various designations. The ghost of old Auctoritas guards us still from the threats we are too young to defend from.

— Dr. A. Petrocchi & Dr. D. Sexo




And so Memetic Dyads were formed to neatly organize the effects of anomalous phenomena with memetic components. The "Dyads" name was chosen for its definition, describing a relationship between two concepts.

Before, all memetic anomalies were the same. But now, with this new system me and my team have developed, our fellow personnel can properly classify memetic hazards in a more specific way. More insight means more safety from memes.

— Dr. Dylan Sexo


Primer:

Relating to trigger of memetic absorption.

Proxior
Triggered through in-person exposure of memetic object.

Meduses
Triggered through any optical exposure, whether in person or recorded through a medium meant for visual stimulation.

Eidolon
Triggered through communication of meme through any medium, including but not limited to audio, visuals, and verbal communication of memetic information.


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Payload:

This part of the classification denotes the effect of the memetic exposure on the subject.

Motus
Effect manipulates/stimulates instinctual parts of the subject's mind to produce certain emotional behaviour.

Phlegethon
Effect manipulates neuron firings in the brain resulting in new sensations in the body, i.e. drowsiness, pain of any sort, or visual/auditory hallucinations.

Lethe
Effect revises the consumption of information resulting in a different perception of said information, or parts of the information being removed from consumption. Examples include viewing the statement "I ate too much today" and registering the information within that statement as "I haven't eaten at all today." Another such example would be viewing a dog and registering the information from said dog as another animal, such as a rat.

Potentia
Effect reorders any unconscious bias the subject possesses to elicit a new system of mental priorities within the subject. Results can range from opinions changing to a complete removal of priorities in the brain, such as the perceived value of eating food to stay alive.

Basilisk
Effect invariably and directly results in death of the subject, whether after a certain period of time or instantly.

With this information one can concisely indicate important aspects of memetic exposure. A list of examples are provided below, and the effects described, while adhering to the Memetic Dyad System, are in fact variable, and can be substituted for another effect as per the denotation.

  • A Proxior-Motus Class memetic effect can denote a trigger through direct, in-person exposure to the object, resulting in the subject experiencing sudden apprehension and fear.
  • A Meduses-Potentia Class memetic effect can denote a trigger through viewing the object/concept in any way using the eyes, resulting in the subject believing one of their organs is infested with rats.
  • An Eidolon-Basilisk Class memetic effect can denote a trigger through consumption of any and all information of the object/concept, which results in the immediate death of the subject. It is important to note that such memetic effect does not currently exist.

Conlusion

For the purposes of documentation and more examples, personnel that make use of Dyads in articles should add them to this table, complete with the specific memetic designation(s).

Article Memetic(s)
RPC-420 Proxior-Motus
Add more! add more.
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