There Is No Antimemetics Division (2018)

This book got me through some tough times. It's one of my favorite pieces of literature. It deserves to be a classic 100 years from now.

Part of why it works is by the nature of its subject, the book and its various plot points and devices serve essentially as metaphors for almost anything-- anything related to how humans communicate and remember.

It's not just superficially a fun sci-fi romp, it's also a story about the stories we tell ourselves and each other, about how we assign meaning to events, among other things. It reminds me just a very little of Godel Escher Bach, but I like this one better. I am also reminded of Lewis Carroll, and the cryptic quote that "through the looking glass is the best book on mathematics for the layman, since it is the best book on any subject for the layman"

It is poetry. It is a Rorschach blot about Rorschach blots. I can't recommend it enough.

> the book and its various plot points and devices serve essentially as metaphors for almost anything

That is interesting. Coincidentally (or not?), I was just thinking about an excellent article about parent-child estrangement that begins like this:

    Members of estranged parents' forums often say their children never gave them any reason for the estrangement, then turn around and reveal that their children did tell them why. But the reasons their children give—the infamous missing reasons—are missing.

Apparently, such reasons are a good example of antimemetic ideas in real life.

Can confirm, lived exactly that situation.

I think you can generalize it about any information that would shatter your identity.

It's the reason some people will tell you Arch Linux worked perfectly on their machine despite having plenty of problems.

The reason why people adopting a religion, a diet or new sexuality will probably not tell you if they are unhappy about the consequences.

Graham did say we should keep our identity small: https://paulgraham.com/identity.html

I don't know if the issue is identity as much as it is the cost of making the decision. All of those things are difficult to change. It's sort of like the sunk cost fallacy.

When having sensitive conversations I think it's important to consider how much it would cost someone to shift their belief.