Re:Crypto as in Crypto
by natch on Sunday April 15, 2018 @03:44PM
(#16844517)
The loss of the word 'meme' was unfortunate imho. For cryptography, we can always say simply 'cryptography,' instead of 'crypto.'
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Was the 'meme' word ever used before?
The first time I remember seeing it ten years ago was exactly to describe the modern internet phenomenon.
It was coined in 1976 as a term meaning "information virus" (akin to gene) something that manages to get itself copied by using its hosts, humans. It still sort of has shades of that meaning in its modern usage, but the original usage was more serious... useful for discussing things like how religions evolve self defense mechanisms.
Nice to see Wikipedia still talks about the old meaning, and uses "internet meme" for the newer meaning.