The use of
memetics for conflict by spreading ideas in a way calculated to negatively affect one's foe.
Strategies
The "weapons" of a memetic war are "memes", ideas which are designed to spread between individuals, influencing their thinking so they act in desired ways. Its foundational axioms are twofold: first, that the behavior and responses of large populations can be predicted through statistical and informational analysis, and the
Iron Law of Memetics—the principle that with sufficient persuasion, most people's beliefs are easily modified.
Memetic campaigns are typically undertaken as part of a larger conflict between two parties, such as a trade feud, territorial dispute, or ethic clash, to weaken the opposing party during hostilities or before they begin. A memetic engineer will typically select a subgroup within an enemy society and tailor memes to target people in it by appealing to their beliefs, with the intended goal they behave in some way which harms the society as a whole. For instance, one nation anticipating a war with another in the near future may look for ethnic minorities or separatist movements in the opposing country and feed them memes which cause them to think the government is corrupt and not looking out for their interests, stoking tension which diverts resources away from war preparations. In this way, memetic warfare is perhaps an extension of the ancient aphorism "divide and conquer".
Defenses
Since many malicious memes are based on misleading or flat-out false information, the first defense which comes to mind is fact-checking. Unfortunately this tends to be only marginally effective because sophisticated memetic payloads will make affected individuals distrust official fact-checkers. In order for it to constitute an effective countermeasure, fact-checking must be accompanied by a strong culture of education and critical thinking which is well-established before any memetic attacks.
Overall, the best form of defense is a well-functioning society where everyone has a chance at a good life, leaving little room for subversive memes to appeal to those who feel wronged or powerless. Nations run on principles of securing the common good will find this easy, usually implementing measures like free education and provision of necessities such as food, healthcare, and shelter, while those dominated by political elites will remain hideously vulnerable for as long as those with wealth and power do not want to share it. But even happy, successful societies can be taken in by false memes and have all their hard work and accomplishments undone if they are not vigilant.
Many memes have trouble jumping the species barrier, relying on cognitive biases and instinctual responses which are not shared even among among closely-related species such as different types of
posthumans. Multispecies societies are therefore less affected by memetic warfare against any one member race.
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