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Comment by iugtmkbdfil834 | Hacker News Reader

While your post is joking in tone, depending on how much we push back now is the exact level of delta between actual future and 'drink verification' copypasta[1].

[1]https://www.reddit.com/r/copypasta/comments/1dfea32/drink_ve...

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>You've been blocked by network security. To continue, log in to your Reddit account or use your developer token

....

It's just the "drink verification can" meme, and could have linked to any site but chose Reddit...

I am debating an appropriate response, but maybe just an answer is not exactly what is called for here.

What do you think a meme is? What function does it serve?

A meme is a unit of information. It serves no function, it just is. Like life itself.

This explains a lot and I am glad you answered this way, because it suggests that you may be open to the possibility that while, to you, memes serve no function, there are people out there, who can use it in a way that make the difference on whether it has an function inherently or not, largely irrelevant. Just like life.

A meme is a _self-propagating_ unit of information. Like a gene.

Tangent: I would call a datum the basic unit of information. Not sure if there's an official word, given the prevalence of the Wikipedia article for unit of (digital) information in every relevant search.

I use redlib so it wasn't an issue for me. I was showing how my result trying to use the website is similar to the meme.

That is funny, sad & scary at the same time.

I guarantee you that there are real people out there in tech who think getting to a "Drink verification can" world would be great for corporate profit, and are actively doing things that bring us closer to that world rather than farther away.

"I think that AI will probably, most likely, sort of lead to the end of the world. But in the meantime, there will be great companies created with serious machine learning."

— Sam Altman

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