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How do ideas spread, mutate, and survive? Why do we laugh when others laugh, adopt accents, hum songs that refuse to leave our heads, or suddenly find ourselves saying "actually"? This seminar explores the evolution of information through the lens of theory of memes, also known as memetics—the study of how cultural patterns replicate, vary, and undergo selection. Beginning with genes and the logic of biological evolution, we trace the emergence of memes as cultural replicators transmitted through imitation, communication, and media. Along the way we examine mirror neurons, contagious behaviours, habits, dopamine, earworms and mindworms, the Maluma–Takete effect, memetic complexes such as fashion, ideology, and religion, self-referentiality, the formation of the egoplex, viral phenomena, computer viruses and worms, apps, emojis, memecoins, and other contemporary manifestations of cultural evolution. Combining perspectives from evolutionary theory, psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, linguistics, media studies, and computer science, the seminar invites participants to view culture itself as an evolving ecosystem of replicating patterns which often act and express themselves independently from what our bodies, minds and souls "actually" want.
2660
How
do
ideas
spread
''
mutate
''
and
survive
?
Why
do
we
laugh
when
others
laugh
''
adopt
accents
''
hum
songs
that
refuse
to
leave
our
heads
''
or
suddenly
find
ourselves
saying
„
actually
“
?
This
seminar
explores
the
evolution
of
information
through
the
lens
of
theory
of
memes
''
also
known
as
memetics
—
the
study
of
how
cultural
patterns
replicate
''
vary
''
and
undergo
selection
.
Beginning
with
genes
and
the
logic
of
biological
evolution
''
we
trace
the
emergence
of
memes
as
cultural
replicators
transmitted
through
imitation
''
communication
''
and
media
.
Along
the
way
we
examine
mirror
neurons
''
contagious
behaviours
''
habits
''
dopamine
''
earworms
and
mindworms
''
the
Maluma
–
Takete
effect
''
memetic
complexes
such
as
fashion
''
ideology
''
and
religion
''
self
-
referentiality
''
the
formation
of
the
egoplex
''
viral
phenomena
''
computer
viruses
and
worms
''
apps
''
emojis
''
memecoins
''
and
other
contemporary
manifestations
of
cultural
evolution
.
Combining
perspectives
from
evolutionary
theory
''
psychology
''
neuroscience
''
philosophy
''
linguistics
''
media
studies
''
and
computer
science
''
the
seminar
invites
participants
to
view
culture
itself
as
an
evolving
ecosystem
of
replicating
patterns
which
often
act
and
express
themselves
independently
from
what
our
bodies
''
minds
and
souls
„
actually
“
want
.
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3993
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3986
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Before your first session, there are a few quick steps to take care of.
Onboarding consists of a 0th step and two further steps.
3987
<
p
>
Before
your
first
session
''
there
are
a
few
quick
steps
to
take
care
of
.
p
><
p
>
Onboarding
consists
of
a
<
strong
>
0th
step
strong
>
and
two
further
steps
![]()
3988
<
p
>
Choose
whichever
fits
your
device
:
p
><
p
><
strong
>
Computer
strong
>
—
install
<
a
href
=
„
https
://
element
.
io
/
download
“
><
strong
>
Element
strong
>
a
>.
p
><
p
><
strong
>
Mobile
strong
>
—
install
<
a
href
=
„
https
://
element
.
io
/
download
“
><
strong
>
Element
X
strong
>
a
>.
p
><
p
><
strong
>
Browser
strong
>
—
no
install
needed
''
just
open
<
a
href
=
„
https
://
udk
.
ai
/
classroom
“
>
udk
.
ai
/
classroom
a
![]()
Log in (or register) using the app you just installed.
UDK students — specify medienhaus.udk-berlin.de as your homeserver.
Motivated guests — Next week, You can request a free udk.ai account.
3989
<
p
>
Log
in
(
or
register
)
using
the
app
you
just
installed
.
p
><
p
><
strong
>
UDK
students
strong
>
—
specify
<
strong
>
medienhaus
.
udk
-
berlin
.
de
strong
>
as
your
homeserver
.
p
><
p
><
strong
>
Motivated
guests
strong
>
—
Next
week
''
You
can
request
a
free
<
strong
>
udk
.
ai
strong
>
account
![]()
3990
<
p
>
Once
logged
in
''
join
the
seminar
'
s
room
.
p
><
p
>
Either
search
for
it
directly
''
or
wait
to
be
invited
into
it
.
p
><
p
>
Room
names
:
p
><
p
><
a
href
=
„
https
://
udk
.
ai
/
classroom
/#/
room
/#
edu
-
memetics
:
medienhaus
.
udk
-
berlin
.
de
“
><
code
>#
edu
-
memetics
:
medienhaus
.
udk
-
berlin
.
de
code
>
a
>
p
><
p
><
a
href
=
„
https
://
udk
.
ai
/
classroom
/#/
room
/#
AI
-
literacy
:
medienhaus
.
udk
-
berlin
.
de
“
><
code
>#
AI
-
literacy
:
medienhaus
.
udk
-
berlin
.
de
code
>
a
![]()
Applies to both two-hour Wednesday seminars — AI-Literacy (14:00) and Memetics (16:00).
14:00 / 16:00 — doors open
14:15 / 16:15 — Begrüßung
14:30 / 16:30 — check-in ends
15:00 / 17:00 — minute of silence ***
15:30 / 17:30 — checkout starts
15:45 / 17:45 — individual requests / onboarding help
*** minute of silence divides the session into analogue (off-the-microphone) and digital (fully archived) sections
3999
<
p
>
Applies
to
both
two
-
hour
Wednesday
seminars
—
AI
-
Literacy
(
14
:
00
)
and
Memetics
(
16
:
00
).
p
><
p
><
strong
>
14
:
00
strong
>
/
<
strong
>
16
:
00
strong
>
—
doors
open
p
><
p
><
strong
>
14
:
15
strong
>
/
<
strong
>
16
:
15
strong
>
—
Begrüßung
p
><
p
><
strong
>
14
:
30
strong
>
/
<
strong
>
16
:
30
strong
>
—
check
-
in
ends
p
><
p
><
strong
>
15
:
00
strong
>
/
<
strong
>
17
:
00
strong
>
—
minute
of
silence
***
p
><
p
><
strong
>
15
:
30
strong
>
/
<
strong
>
17
:
30
strong
>
—
checkout
starts
p
><
p
><
strong
>
15
:
45
strong
>
/
<
strong
>
17
:
45
strong
>
—
individual
requests
/
onboarding
help
p
><
p
>***
minute
of
silence
divides
the
session
into
analogue
(
off
-
the
-
microphone
)
and
digital
(
fully
archived
)
sections
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×
- You start the recording with a start button (You can click on it, touch it, or simply move Your finger/cursor over it).
- Subsequently, You move the finger/cursor over the first syllable/word. You pronounce the segment only when its background has green color.
- You gradually progress from syllable to syllable and segment to segment. You always start pronouncing certain segment only when it is green.
- Note that accentuated & long syllables are marked with blue color, while short/non-accentuated syllables are marked with green color.
- After You are done with the last syllable You move Your finger towards the stop button. Then you can playback the whole recording, when you are satisfied you click on "Upload" and the next text appears.
×
In order to be fully compliant with European data-protection Law, we need Your explicit consent regarding use of Your voice data. Please choose one among following consent types:
- Do not upload :: You do not give us Your consent. Thus, no data will be uploaded from Your browser to our server. But You can still use the interface for testing purposes.
- Only speech-to-text-models :: Your recordings will become part of the corpus from which automatic speech recognition (ASR) models will be trained. Corpus itself will not be published but the final model will be published.
- Only text-to-speech :: Similar to previous option but this time, the resulting model will not be used for ASR but for synthesis of artificial voices.
- STT & TTS :: Both ASR and voice synthesis models could be trained from datasets containing Your recordings. Again, the recordings themselves will not be published.
- Public Dataset :: Your recordings will become part of a publicly available dataset. This is the most permissive option.
Note that in all cases, Your recordings will be anonymized and asides voluntary gender / age / zodiac sign / mother language information no metadata is collected.