It seems that Johnicolas would call the Fermi estimate meme “infectious”, but not a “disease”.
(Note that the word ‘infection’ has a stigma to it, but I don’t mean it to be necessarily a bad thing. I will use ‘disease’ to mean ‘infection with bad consequences’.)
It may be better to more explicitly counter the connotations of common usage by calling it a “benign infection”.
This reminds me of someone complaining somewhere that the word viral is now used without negative connotation (as in viral advertising by its advocates), and that that’s not right.
Natural organic viruses can be good for you. E.g. see the Seneca Valley Virus.
“Viral” isn’t wrong—though there is a case that it is potentially misleading. I tend to use “cultural symbiont”, “cultural parasite” and “cultural mutualist”.
It seems that Johnicolas would call the Fermi estimate meme “infectious”, but not a “disease”.
It may be better to more explicitly counter the connotations of common usage by calling it a “benign infection”.
This reminds me of someone complaining somewhere that the word viral is now used without negative connotation (as in viral advertising by its advocates), and that that’s not right.
Natural organic viruses can be good for you. E.g. see the Seneca Valley Virus.
“Viral” isn’t wrong—though there is a case that it is potentially misleading. I tend to use “cultural symbiont”, “cultural parasite” and “cultural mutualist”.
Thank you. Exactly.