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The Virian Lexicon
Q to T
RELIGION:(vl) Any meme-complex that competes with a traditional religion, e.g. Roman Catholicism. Two meme-complexes compete to the extent that it is impossible to consistently both to be true.
REPLICATION STRATEGY: Any memetic strategy used by a meme to encourage its host to repeat the meme to other people. The hook co-meme of a meme-complex. (GMG)
RETROMEME: A meme which attempts to splice itself into an existing meme-complex (example: Marxist-Leninists trying to co-opt other sociotypes). (GMG)
REWARD CO-MEME: See bait.
SCHEME: A meme-complex. (Hofstadter.)
SEMANTICS:(vl) 1. The branch of semiotics dealing with the study of meaning.
2. In Virus, the branch of metaphysics dealing with the study of effect.
SOCIOTYPE: 1. The social expression of a memotype, as the body of an organism is the physical expression (phenotype) of the gene (genotype). Hence, the Protestant Church is one sociotype of the Bible's memotype. 2. A class of similar social organisations. (GMG)
STRUCTURE:(vl) Information in the form of a physical pattern.
SYMMEME: See co-meme.
SYSTEM:(vl) A collection of causally related objects. All systems (except perhaps the universe) are part of a supersystem. All systems (except perhaps quarks) are composed of subsystems. The behaviour of a system is an epiphenomenon of the collective behaviours of its component subsystems. Systems are essentially patterns.
THREAT: The part of a meme-complex that encourages adherence and discourages mis-replication. ("Damnation to Hell" is the threat co-meme in many religious schemes.) (See: bait, hook, vaccime.) (Hofstadter)
TOLERANCE: A meta-meme which confers resistance to a wide variety of memes (and their sociotypes), without conferring meme-allergies. In its purest form, Tolerance allows its host to be repeatedly exposed to rival memes, even intolerant rivals, without active infection or meme-allergic reaction. Tolerance is a central co-meme in a wide variety of schemes, particularly "liberalism", and "democracy". Without it, a scheme will often become exo-toxic and confer meme-allergies on its hosts. Since schemes compete for finite belief-space, tolerance is not necessarily a virtue, but it has co-evolved in the ideosphere in much the same way as co-operation has evolved in biological ecosystems. (Henson.)
TRUE:(vl) Accurate with respect to objective reality. Since accuracy is not a discrete attribute, truth is necessarily a fuzzy concept.
TRUE MEANING:(vl) The sum total of all effects from the event to the end of time.
