Noi, macchine memeficanti. O di come il mondo scompare nei nostri scherzi

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce the concept of the memefying machine. Drawing on Baudrillard's perspective, which sees irony as the only cure for the paralysis of the West caused by the proliferation of simulacra, we argue that memes and memetic games embody a deactivation and incorporation of this subversive irony. This reflection aims to analyze the meme from both aesthetic and political perspectives, showing how it becomes a pathogenic and autoimmune response to the virtual derealization of reality. In this context, the memefying machine reduces every event and the world itself to an ironic miniature, avoiding confronting its impossibility of taking place.