[what-imright]

I’m pretty concerned about a AI generating infectious memes and memeplexes/religions. It doesn’t take much to start a religious genocide. Look at Hong Xiuquan, the brother of jesus from China. 30 million dead. Synthetic religion could be so convincing it sucks us all into some delusion

[olddustytrail]

And you know what another dangerous meme is? Humour. You can make offensive and degrading remarks about pretty much anything.

But no one wants to admit they are not infected with the humour meme.

[trasz]

Humor isn’t harmful. There were no genocides in the name of humor. It doesn’t destroy peoples lives. It doesn’t promote unhealthy behaviors, and doesn’t cripple peoples’ ability to understand the reality around them.

[olddustytrail]

Nonsense. The preperation for the Holocaust was the "humourous" depictions of "the Jew".

You must be aware of examples from your own culture also.

[yboris]

This may be the best book to read on the topic: Breaking the Spell by the philosopher Daniel C. Dennett. In short: religion is a meme (that has evolved over centuries). Crudely put, one can draw some parallels between religion "infecting" a human and a virus that makes an ant crawl to the top of a blade of grass (as the virus needs a sheep's stomach to reproduce).

https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Spell-Religion-Natural-Pheno...