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Review: "Antimemetics: Why some ideas resists spreading and some thoughts" - Nadia Asparouhova
I just finished this book. I was trying to pin down -- what are my feelings on it? What was interesting about this book? What feelings did I feel reading this book. I’m going to do my best to break it up into two parts. The first part is - as an extension of its name sake, Antimemetics book by qntm. The second part, the context of where I read it from. First of all, let me start by saying - this is a pretty damn good book. First and foremost, I think the idea of memetic / antimemetics is a really great starting point. Qntm’s There is No Antimemetics Division - is still a fantastic book, and I see this almost as a downstream consequence of this book. That being said, I think what was interesting about this, was that it wasn’t about Antimemetics as much as I thought. The book to me - is about - internet culture. And the sort of social dynamics and infrastructure and ideas of internet culture and transmission of ideas.
The second part: this part of the review is more about me, than the content itself. So, the context of where I read this book from is going to matter to my review. the familiarity, perhaps because of my environment and context in the world (tech adjacent, familiarity with Seeing like a State) it felt like… I was reading a really well written Substack article about tech adjacent interesting ideas - around philosophy of the development of the internet and the consequences as a society. And while there’s nothing wrong with that inherently, due to my pre-existing knowledge perhaps. It felt like getting on a train in a neighboring country, you sort of know how to get on the train, and it feels familiar, but just different enough.
Or perhaps -- sort of feels like going to a really great French adjacent Haute Cuisine Michelin star restaurant, when you work at a Michelin star that is French adjacent. So on one hand, it’s great, you know the dynamics and where the author is trying to get to, and what original points they are making and what the menu is. On the other hand, you know the dishes, and the skills and what the dynamics are - to a certain extent. It feels familiar and slightly ephemerally yet important at the same time.
Overall good book. I know how much work goes into something like this, and how much time it takes, so I don’t think it is done lightly. If anything I think this just goes on to show how important ideas are like this, and how books that are timely do a good job hitting the right note. 4 replies
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