Defender
@defenderofbasic.bsky.social
Memetics science writer / open memetics evangelist
Pinned
Defender
@defenderofbasic.bsky.social
· May 4
Here is my "memetics 101" article. This summarizes my understanding of this field, why it's important, and who is actively doing work that I am paying attention to
open.substack.com/pub/defender...
open.substack.com/pub/defender...
"can we predict, in principle, the “emotional resonance vector” of a new idea before it spreads"
yes, absolutely! All you have to do is preregister with the open memetics institute. If your thing goes viral in the way you predict, then that's proof
yes, absolutely! All you have to do is preregister with the open memetics institute. If your thing goes viral in the way you predict, then that's proof
November 11, 2025 at 1:55 PM
"can we predict, in principle, the “emotional resonance vector” of a new idea before it spreads"
yes, absolutely! All you have to do is preregister with the open memetics institute. If your thing goes viral in the way you predict, then that's proof
yes, absolutely! All you have to do is preregister with the open memetics institute. If your thing goes viral in the way you predict, then that's proof
Reposted by Defender
Current status: visualising "water level cuts" of HDBSCAN clustering on pol.is data from protest, thinking on filter bubble propagation, #queer / outsider identities & hierarchical navigable small world networks.. #complexity #democracy
main--68c53b7909ee2fb48f1979dd.chromatic.com?path=/story/...
main--68c53b7909ee2fb48f1979dd.chromatic.com?path=/story/...
November 9, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Current status: visualising "water level cuts" of HDBSCAN clustering on pol.is data from protest, thinking on filter bubble propagation, #queer / outsider identities & hierarchical navigable small world networks.. #complexity #democracy
main--68c53b7909ee2fb48f1979dd.chromatic.com?path=/story/...
main--68c53b7909ee2fb48f1979dd.chromatic.com?path=/story/...
(experimenting with memes to unite left/right)
November 8, 2025 at 2:34 PM
(experimenting with memes to unite left/right)
Reposted by Defender
Cool idea for high signal curation
(sharing screenshots until @defenderofbasic.bsky.social sets up crossposting ;) )
Looking forward to enabling this with semble.so !
(sharing screenshots until @defenderofbasic.bsky.social sets up crossposting ;) )
Looking forward to enabling this with semble.so !
November 3, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Cool idea for high signal curation
(sharing screenshots until @defenderofbasic.bsky.social sets up crossposting ;) )
Looking forward to enabling this with semble.so !
(sharing screenshots until @defenderofbasic.bsky.social sets up crossposting ;) )
Looking forward to enabling this with semble.so !
meanwhile, on extremist right wing twitter @hankgreen.bsky.social
October 4, 2025 at 7:34 PM
meanwhile, on extremist right wing twitter @hankgreen.bsky.social
Reposted by Defender
Inspired by @ventrella.bsky.social's Clusters demo, I'm exploring how to add an arbitrary number of dimensions to #particlelife and/or #particlelenia simulators... patcon.github.io/Clusters-n-d...
September 29, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Inspired by @ventrella.bsky.social's Clusters demo, I'm exploring how to add an arbitrary number of dimensions to #particlelife and/or #particlelenia simulators... patcon.github.io/Clusters-n-d...
Reposted by Defender
6/ Goodreads is another inspiration for how “micro-knowledge” can aggregate into meaningful impact. As @aj-boston.bsky.social writes, why *don’t* we have something like Science Goodreads yet? bsky.app/profile/rone...
Ronen Tamari (@ronent.bsky.social)
"Lack of Open Peer Review is Weird... A troubled scholarly article is similar to a contaminated head of lettuce: despite having inspection schedules and reporting mechanisms, the object and its…
bsky.app
August 15, 2025 at 5:13 PM
6/ Goodreads is another inspiration for how “micro-knowledge” can aggregate into meaningful impact. As @aj-boston.bsky.social writes, why *don’t* we have something like Science Goodreads yet? bsky.app/profile/rone...
Reposted by Defender
The post below is a bit incoherent, but important. It's about how society (now amplified by algorithms) chooses not to remember certain things: to "memory hole" them. Understanding how memetics works is the single #1 most important task facing humanity. Nothing else matters for civilization.
glimpse of what I've been up to (this is from the open memetics discord) - discussing memory holes & how they are unstable, because awareness of them makes them disappear
August 5, 2025 at 1:15 PM
The post below is a bit incoherent, but important. It's about how society (now amplified by algorithms) chooses not to remember certain things: to "memory hole" them. Understanding how memetics works is the single #1 most important task facing humanity. Nothing else matters for civilization.
glimpse of what I've been up to (this is from the open memetics discord) - discussing memory holes & how they are unstable, because awareness of them makes them disappear
August 5, 2025 at 12:28 PM
glimpse of what I've been up to (this is from the open memetics discord) - discussing memory holes & how they are unstable, because awareness of them makes them disappear
Reposted by Defender
about to send an update for "Summer of Pub" sharing initial participants in our lil @leaflet.pub blog club!
meant to do last week; finally putting together…anyone else participating? if you're joining but haven't shared your blog yet, lmk & I'll update the list!
the ~only rule = publish weekly :)
meant to do last week; finally putting together…anyone else participating? if you're joining but haven't shared your blog yet, lmk & I'll update the list!
the ~only rule = publish weekly :)
July 23, 2025 at 6:45 PM
about to send an update for "Summer of Pub" sharing initial participants in our lil @leaflet.pub blog club!
meant to do last week; finally putting together…anyone else participating? if you're joining but haven't shared your blog yet, lmk & I'll update the list!
the ~only rule = publish weekly :)
meant to do last week; finally putting together…anyone else participating? if you're joining but haven't shared your blog yet, lmk & I'll update the list!
the ~only rule = publish weekly :)
great question!! I recently wrote an analysis/introduction to hank green from a memetics perspective (his egregore is surprisingly not well known at all in the tpot/rationalist spaces)
July 22, 2025 at 2:41 PM
great question!! I recently wrote an analysis/introduction to hank green from a memetics perspective (his egregore is surprisingly not well known at all in the tpot/rationalist spaces)
"There is No Source"
June 25, 2025 at 2:50 PM
"There is No Source"
epistemic shortcuts are necessary, but some increase your ability to handle complexity, and some increase the veil of complexity that allows power, abuse, corruption to fester
June 18, 2025 at 12:51 PM
epistemic shortcuts are necessary, but some increase your ability to handle complexity, and some increase the veil of complexity that allows power, abuse, corruption to fester
given a viral tweet thread, we can see "the shape" of all replies. Replies that similar together conceptually appear close together on the map (planning to apply this to bluesky next)
June 17, 2025 at 1:41 AM
given a viral tweet thread, we can see "the shape" of all replies. Replies that similar together conceptually appear close together on the map (planning to apply this to bluesky next)
"how autistic supercharmers develop (1/2)"
June 10, 2025 at 1:10 PM
"how autistic supercharmers develop (1/2)"
the ideological turing test is how you find out if you think the other side is evil because you don't understand them, or because they actually are evil
June 4, 2025 at 12:35 PM
the ideological turing test is how you find out if you think the other side is evil because you don't understand them, or because they actually are evil
(1) this is not a problem to be solved, this is necessary slack in the system that makes room for groundbreaking new paradigms (2) there cannot be "one" canonical scientific community. Scientists obviously disagree on a lot of things, this is normal & good
I'm really torn about this because ultimately I do feel that as a member of the scientific community, I do share some responsibility for the quality of the overall output and the efficiency of the process.
June 3, 2025 at 11:13 AM
(1) this is not a problem to be solved, this is necessary slack in the system that makes room for groundbreaking new paradigms (2) there cannot be "one" canonical scientific community. Scientists obviously disagree on a lot of things, this is normal & good
This is my protocol for good faith interaction on the internet cc @linas.org
June 2, 2025 at 3:37 PM
This is my protocol for good faith interaction on the internet cc @linas.org
if you make peer reviews public, it acts as a way to get feedback for the reviewer too (like as an undergrad I can review a paper, in my own words, and that conveys any lack of understanding I may have about the field)
June 2, 2025 at 1:02 PM
if you make peer reviews public, it acts as a way to get feedback for the reviewer too (like as an undergrad I can review a paper, in my own words, and that conveys any lack of understanding I may have about the field)
two ways to communicate with an entire mind
June 1, 2025 at 11:12 PM
two ways to communicate with an entire mind
On open source cultural engineering (the cool thing about this is that doing it in the open allows those who disagree to take action, and possibly move the needle in the opposite direction. Culture war turns into culture science)
May 31, 2025 at 3:26 PM
On open source cultural engineering (the cool thing about this is that doing it in the open allows those who disagree to take action, and possibly move the needle in the opposite direction. Culture war turns into culture science)
on epistemic literacy tests
 Hank Green shows examples of liberal misinformation to his liberal audience. "The conclusion is right, but not for this reason"](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:sydtqdji6dxfqfn35gd7esdw/bafkreifculx2kfgwtpnsbsjuogtkobhovadw3ci26gg36ucplwb5w6jjsm@jpeg)
May 30, 2025 at 7:40 PM
on epistemic literacy tests
learning about someone's understanding of the thing, is a different pursuit of knowledge than learning about the thing, but it is still in itself teaches you something useful about the universe
May 30, 2025 at 4:58 PM
learning about someone's understanding of the thing, is a different pursuit of knowledge than learning about the thing, but it is still in itself teaches you something useful about the universe