History Main / MemeticsInFiction

* ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder: The trope namer was a meme virus that turned people into mad scientists, though most examples treat it as a more biological mental disorder.

* One of the core concepts behind ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'' is the use of memetics to influence a society that has integrated with technology to the point that people can be hacked and controlled by others if they're not careful.
** One of the starting points of the Laughing Man story arc involves a police scandal involving the illegal and non-consensual use of "interceptors" in the police force, which allowed third parties to spy through their eyes without the officers knowing. When the Police Superintendent-General Daido tries to cover up the story, the Laughing Man springs to action and sends a warning that he would attack him later. Section 9 correctly deduces that one of Daido's bodyguards would be hacked by a virus that causes him to attack, but pandemonium breaks loose when 47 other random citizens show up to try and kill Daido. 47 people who had no connection to each other, all acted alone, and all sprung to action at the exact same time. It's later revealed that those 47 people weren't under the influence of any viruses or hacking, but were radicalized by the threat itself made by the return of the infamous Laughing Man, who's represented smiling face symbol that quotes ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'' had achieved pop cultural status after the initial "Laughing Man Incident" from six years prior. This phenomenon would later be dubbed a "Stand Alone Complex", which is defined as [[DeadUnicornTrope copycat activities which mimic a supposed original that doesn't exist]].
** However, even more than that, the return of the Laughing Man to threaten the Superintendent-General was itself a fabricated ploy to immediately distract the public from the initial corruption charges, and it would have worked if not for Section 9's intervention.
** The initial Laughing Man incident became such a cultural phenomenon that the intial message of trying to uncover a government conspiracy in front of a live broadcast ended up being remembered by the public more for the spectacle it created than from the message it was presenting. The Major actually has to dig through TV broadcasts to find an original recording of how the incident played out, as it had spread around the net so much that people began to only remember what they wanted to remember about it. It's like the concept of GossipEvolution, where the original message is lost and corrupted by each individuals own specific interpretation of what they were told.
** The show's second season "2nd Gig", would delve into the concept of using multiple Stand Alone Complexes to persuade and influence public opinion on certain subjects, such as the intentional spreading of misinformation (what would be dubbed as "Fake News" in the real world) to convince an entire population to show hostility against minority groups.
** Misused in ''Anime/GhostInTheShellSAC2045'' when a ContagiousAI refers to its code that infected [[spoiler: the Posthumans]] as its "memes."

* Weaponized memes get mentioned in passing in ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'' every so often. Such as Spider mentioning the time the Red Catholics dropped the auto-cannibalism meme on Karel Square.
--> "I ''still'' can't eat pork."

* In the 10th anniversary edition of ''Literature/AmericanGods'' [[spoiler: Jesus]] explains that gods give up their mortal existence to live as memes, recreated indefinitely in people's minds in a thousand different ways.

* ''TabletopGame/WildTalents'': In the "Progenitor" campaign setting's AlternateHistory a super brain discovered memetics decades before Dawkins and named it “Syntergenics,” a compound of synergies, genetics, syntax, and interaction. The founder used it to craft a Syntergene to break himself free of [[UsefulNotes/LyndonJohnson LBJ's]] mind control and its' spread influenced the anti-war movement, however characters can craft less well-intentioned Syntergenes of their own.

** Also [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] between [[MissionControl Kevin]] and Raiden in a Codec call after the defeat of Monsoon, on Richard Dawkins and his book "The Selfish Gene", with memes defined as "the genes of a culture", how they spread and how contagious ones can get such as fashion, materialism, and the CycleOfRevenge, as well as acknowledging how one can know and spread the "good" memes while also spotting and killing the "bad" ones as well, with Raiden ending the Codec with a promise to kill the meme machine that is the "[[TykeBomb Sears Program]]" run by World Marshal and Desperato.
** Later referenced by [[spoiler:[[BigBad Senator Armstrong]]]] during ''his'' MotiveRant, [[spoiler:explaining that The Patriots' memes of Nationalism, Unilateralism, and Consumerism ensured that the American people would to be ready to go to war on the slightest provocation, even years after The Patriots were gone, a mindset that he exploited for his own SocialDarwinist agenda.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/AMiracleOfScience'', the trope namer for ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder, which in-universe is a memetic virus that scientific geniuses can be susceptible to, turning them into {{Mad Scientist}}s. The first two pages show the series villain reading banned book "Crank Theories of Robotics" before breaking out in maniacal laughter, the book being a well-known vector of SRMD.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* In ''Website/OrionsArm'' [[https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-topic/45b41654cd0c4 memetics]] is a mature and ''terrifying'' science often used by transapients and [[DeusEstMachina archailects]] to control modosophont populations, or as weapons against their rivals. There are even sentient memes (known as totems, or demons) and some archai have engineered sapient memes.
* The ''Website/SCPFoundation'' has a lot of pages tagged as "[[http://www.scp-wiki.net/system:page-tags/tag/memetic memetic hazards]]" and in a few cases such as [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/1231-warning SCP-1231]] and [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/902-warning SCP-902]] has a warning page before the actual article. For more in-universe details see the ''[[http://www.scp-wiki.net/understanding-memetics Understanding Memetics]]'' essay and the [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/memetics-and-infohazards-division-orientation transcript of the orientation meeting for their Memetics and Infohazards Division]].
** The Foundation also has (or had, and maybe has again, or never did) an ''Antimemetics'' [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub Division]], spurred on by the seeming nonexistence of [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-055 SCP-055]] and other such anomalies. Turns out that when certain beings are keeping their existence secret by spreading the idea that ''they don't exist'', you want to keep an even closer eye on them. [[GoneHorriblyRight Turns out that can be a bad idea, too.]]

->''We're all pawns, controlled by something greater: Memes. The DNA of the soul. They shape our will. They are the culture — they are everything we pass on. Expose someone to anger long enough, they will learn to hate. They become a carrier. Envy, greed, despair... All memes. All passed along.''
-->-- '''Monsoon''', ''Videogame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance''

* In ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' [[https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-topic/45b41654cd0c4 memetics]] is a mature and ''terrifying'' science often used by transapients and [[DeusEstMachina archailects]] to control modosophont populations, or as weapons against their rivals. There are even sentient memes (known as totems, or demons) and some archai have engineered sapient memes.

* PropagandaMachine: A totalitarian government's attempts at memetic engineering.