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There Is No Antimemetics Division (2018)

(qntm.org)
728 points squircle | 1 comments | 12 Aug 24 13:37 UTC | HN request time: 0.212s | source
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teaearlgraycold ◴[12 Aug 24 15:58 UTC] No.41225924[source]▶
I haven't read the book, just the web-page. But the concept of an anti-meme reminded me of something.

The magicians Penn & Teller use this concept to keep their magic tricks safe. They've publicly said that most of their tricks look really impressive, but once you find out how the work you'll be disappointed. What people want to discover is that the magic trick is really an elaborate puzzle where the viewer has just short of enough information to figure it out. The desired explanation for a trick is a hair trigger piece of information that suddenly has it all make sense. Instead the explanations are really just a long sequence of boring facts. What you see is a facade with a bunch of mundane machinery hidden away. If anyone does explain the trick then by the time they're half way through all of the steps you've lost interest.

replies(1): >>41236823 #
1. lupire ◴[13 Aug 24 16:14 UTC] No.41236823[source]▶
Most tricks have a very short explanation. Something is just a fake prop. A hidden breathing tube in the water. The camera is upside down. The nails are popped up from the table, not shot from the gun. The selected card is forced by sleight of hand. Like a video game or a movie, there's a fake trigger and a fake effect and then there's a mockup of the appearance of the connection between. Making it look good requires a lot of detailed work, like painting a miniature city for a movie, which bores most people, but the trick is explained very simply.