Many prominent Bitcoiners before me have recognized this, and I would encourage those interested to consult the fantastic articles written by Bob Simon, SEANSTACKIN and Jameson Lopp for more information.
Those genes that enhance the adaptive fitness of an organism increase the likelihood that it will reproduce, thereby increasing the likelihood that the gene itself will proliferate among a population.
There is a sense in which genes compete against other genes for their own survival and inclusion in the genetic makeup of the host organism.
Consider, for instance, that after observing a unique Madagascan orchid with an extremely long spur, Darwin predicted that there would exist a moth with a proboscis long enough to extract the nectar located at the base of the flower.
Thus, not only can genes reveal heretofore unknown truths about organisms and the environments they exist within, but it is also possible that a co-evolutionary process can occur between the genes of distinct organisms. All of this is relevant when considering the memes that exist in the Bitcoin community.
To help see this, consider the “HODL” meme, which is perhaps one of the most well-known and long-standing memes in the Bitcoin community.
Others on the forum immediately seized upon the misspelling, clearly finding it humorous, and echoed the underlying sentiment by proudly responding with “HODL!”.
Any individual who saw GameKyuubi’s post and adhered to this rule has experienced a 10,000% increase in their purchasing power since that date.
Like GameKyuubi, we can stipulate that they made a similar replication mistake when they titled their post “I AM TRAEDING.” Suppose, further, that some community members embraced the HODL meme, with the associated strategy, while others embraced the TRAED meme and strategy.
To begin with, the tax implications, transaction and opportunity costs immediately disadvantage those embracing the TRAED meme when compared with those adopting the HODL meme.
More importantly, however, is the fact that the HODL meme more closely aligns with the fundamental features of the Bitcoin network when compared with the TRAED meme.
This is because those memes that fail to align with the fundamental features of the Bitcoin network will not enhance the adaptive fitness of cultural carriers to the same extent that rival memes, which do align with the fundamental features of the Bitcoin network, can be expected to.
Taking this analysis one step further, it may even be argued that the Bitcoin consensus rules that are upheld and replicated by the distributed network of nodes can be conceived of as a set of memes; they are, after all, a set of cultural rules all independently adopted by full-node-running Bitcoiners.
Each meme enhances and reflexively reinforces the other; as more cultural carriers embrace the HODL meme, those same carriers are more likely to embrace and support the capped supply consensus rule, which in turn strengthens and helps to proliferate the HODL meme.
It is, for all of these reasons, why memes can be thought to reveal truths about the Bitcoin network and community; it is only those memes that in some way reflect, or reinforce, fundamental truths about the Bitcoin network that will survive and thrive over time.