Explore memetics, online group phenomena and their impact on the future

Author: Kelsie Nabben, Compiled by: Sissi@TEDAO

At the beginning of 2021, the Internet community, Elon Musk and Dogecoin caused a stir due to a tweet, causing this band The market value of the spoof cryptocurrency soared to about $14 billion in a short period of time. Memes are really funny, they stick in people's minds and convey ideas in a concise and clear way.

This meme phenomenon spread through the Internet has also been explored in the science fiction novel "Avalanche". As compelling as the statement that “memes influence markets” is, few people seem to have really thought deeply about the implications behind it, or have read “Snow Crash.”

meme = weapon

In Avalanche, this phenomenon is called a "psychovirus". Memes are not just "visual humor" as described by the Australian Financial Review. In fact,the term “meme” stands for “memetics,” which refers to a type of information and cultural elements designed to take root in people’s minds to effectively spread ideas and thoughts.

Real-world applications of these meme technologies, including memes spread through social media, especially those targeted, have widely demonstrated their damaging effects on democratic processes. Additionally, memes have played a role in COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation, which have sparked protests against public health measures around the world, with very real consequences.

Actually, memes are anything but jokes.

You should invest in Bitcoin long ago.  [Source: https://usaherald.com/elon-musk-simple-tweets-send-gamestop-bitcoin-doge-to-moon/]

Netizens’ Power: Memes and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)

Another real-life incident occurred immediately after the “GameStop” stock price experienced market manipulation. It shows how retail investors banded together to successfully counter the short selling of the stock market by large Wall Street hedge funds. Through collective action, these retail investors not only protested against the strategies of hedge funds, but also launched an effective counterattack against these funds in the market through coordination, cooperation and resource integration.

On platforms like Twitter and Reddit, we’ve witnessed similar crowd behavior impact the market, particularly in pump-and-dump operations. This market manipulation has been going on for several years.

We can see similar crowd dynamics in the cryptocurrency world, particularly in initial coin offerings (ICOs). There is a subtle interactive relationship involving project founders and active users of online forums. This relationship is primarily driven by economic interests, i.e. everyone expects the value of the cryptocurrency to rise.

This is a common criticism of the blockchain field from other “peer-to-peer” decentralized technology projects and researchers. By creating economic scarcity, cryptocurrency-based blockchain networks envision an ideal technological future where computers are in control and free from political and governance issues. Part of the hostility between these different tech circles may stem from the failure of some projects to make huge fortunes from cryptocurrencies.

As these technologies develop, regulatory agencies have begun to step in and take regulatory measures to regulate the impact of these emerging markets and cyberspace. Things get complicated. Meanwhile, chat app “Discord” has banned some online forum groups due to hate speech.

This raises a thought: In a future where digital space and the real world are increasingly integrated, how will those network groups that can coordinate actions to influence the physical market and public behavior shape our world?

Cypherpunk predictions come true

As early as the 1990s, cypherpunks had already foreseen this development trend. As they predicted, some extreme views within the “crypto-anarchist” community believe that online mobs and organized crime syndicates are the inevitable consequences of a decentralized internet. The side effects of this trend are evident in multiple ways, including not only increasingly frequent, severe, and costly DDoS attacks, but also the growing prosperity of darknet markets.

In the science fiction novel "Snow Crash", the author imagines a future where cyberspace is closely intertwined with the reality of daily life. The world in the book has been privatized, with different private cartels managing various areas of the city, and people can choose the jurisdiction they are least disgusted with. This description paints a vivid picture of a possible future for the online world.

At the same time, crypto projects are beginning to realize that their work is actually about adopting new, more decentralized and digital approaches to governance design. This development shows that digitization and decentralization are not only trends in the technology field, but are also becoming important components of social and governance structures.

Governing the Future

As Elon Musk said, memes may indeed become “the controlling force in the future economy.” If so, the challenge we face will be when the ideals of "liberty" and "justice" are no longer determined by the "invisible hand" of the market or the "immutable code" of cryptocurrencies, but arise from "desire"  How should we deal with "meme learning"?

So, how should we create a cyberspace based on "sharing" rather than "cartel control"?

In the distributed network community, attention to governance design is growing rapidly. People are gradually realizing that "decentralized autonomous organizations" are not flawless code machines used to guide human behavior. Even permissionless digital infrastructure is not entirely free from governance issues. Instead, we may need to find a better version in an inevitable digital world. In this context, Ostrom’s theory is particularly important. Nobel Peace Prize winner Elinor Ostrom’s theoretical framework on managing public goods is becoming an important guide to online community governance. This provides us with a perspective thatviews digital infrastructure as a “shared resource” or shared public good, with the goal of co-construction and co-sustainment rather than as a tool for attack.

The emergence of Gamestop, Dogecoin, and more memes is a constant reminder that all infrastructure, including digital infrastructure, is political. But citizens of the Internet, beware,memes are a powerful tool that should not be underestimated in the battle for influence over minds and behavior.

The antidote that has proven to be the most effective is education. European researchers created the game GoViral! to train students to recognize and understand the development of memes and help them distinguish between memes and disinformation.

Although information infrastructure provides individuals with greater freedom, power, and the possibility to participate in governance, we are still discovering the rules of life that apply to this era.