Bankless - The Power of Mimetic Desire - Luke Burgis
Primer: Luke Burgis, author of the book Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life, shares his thoughts on mimetic desire. Memetic desire refers to how humans can not only imitate the actions of other humans but also their desires. Using this concept, he shares how memes, the stock markets and crypto token maximalists can be understood through the lens of mimetic desires.
Who is Luke Burgis?
Author of a book titled Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life
Studied business at NYU Stern and philosophy and theology at a pontifical university in Rome
Managing partner of Fourth Wall Ventures
Teaches business at The Catholic University of America
Serves on the board of several new K-12 education initiatives
Mimetic desire
The root word of mimetic
Mimetic has a root word of mimesis, which means mime or mimicry or imitation
Different from meme, or memetics
What is mimetic desire?
Aristotle recognized 2500 years ago that humans are the most imitative creatures that can imitate language, facial expressions and social norms
Rene Girard, a French academic, coined the phrase mimetic desire
He worked on the mimetic theory in the 60s to the 80s and wrote that besides imitating on a superficial level of representation, humans can also imitate the desires of other people too
Mimetic desire is an imitation of desire, not the imitation of 'a thing'
Biologically wired inside us
This is wired biologically at a pre-conscious or subconscious level
Babies from different cultures cry differently because they can already imitate their mother's language before birth
They only imitate humans, not robots or animals
Mimetic desire affects everything in our lives
The superpower of human beings
Mimetic desire connect all of us as human beings
Humans have the ability to socially coordinate at levels that animals cannot
This superpower is the cornerstone of all our technology
Is a double-edged sword that can be used for good or evil
Why Mimetic desire is not in Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Maslow was focused on human needs
Luke didn't think Maslow understood the structure of human desire that Rene Girard identified
Maslow idea of needs is very structured, suggesting a clear progression from the bottom tier and then moving on to the next tier and so on
"We live in a world surrounded by other people, modelling desires to us all the time. So I think that pyramid [Maslow's hierarchy of needs] is not a pyramid at all. It's basically a Pandora's box. After you get past the first two levels, especially, you can just lop off the top. And we've entered the universe of desires."
- Luke Burgis
But in 2021, we live in a world where there are many other non-hierarchical models of desires
We have moved on from a world where the basic physiological needs, like food, shelter and water, are taken care off
The Universe of desires
When basic needs are taken care of, we enter a universe of desires, controlled by memetic desire
E.g. there are so many different brands of water, types of clothing, types of hairstyles to choose from - we choose based on what we desire, which in turn is based on what others desire
"For the first time in human history, we're no longer struggling with scarcity. We're having to cope with abundance."
- Luke Burgis
Mimetic desire creates scarcity in a land of abundance
Even though there are so many choices out there, we only want what others want - hence mimetic desire introduces scarcity back into abundance
If desires are influenced by others, then there will be a "genesis block" where that desire first arises
That "Genesis block" could come from God, evolution, or from parents passing down to children
Genes vs Memes
A gene is a self-replicating unit of biological information that is stored inside a chromosome
A meme, coined by Richard Dawkins in 1976 in his book The Selfish Gene, is a self-replicating unit of cultural information that is stored somewhere (human mind, blockchain etc)
A meme contains a lot of complex ideas, desires and rivalries
We cannot understand culture or memes (which is layer 1) without understand the base layer 0 of human desires
Memes are best understood in 3 layers:
Layer 0: Mimetic desires - the hidden social forces that propel memes and gives them energy
Layer 1: Culture / Memes - the cultural information that is self-replicating
Layer 2: Application layer where memes are created to represent a certain group
We have many genes are that largely dormant until it is needed, then it will be activated.
Likewise, we have many memes in us that are deactivated. A mimetic desire will trigger a particular meme and activate it
It is a complete mystery why certain memes get activated - seems completely random and without reasons
E.g Crypto punks. when started, not a lot of people cared about it
Mimetic desire has created the scarcity to drive up the price of crypto punks, due to subjective scarcity
Objective scarcity is when there are real-world limits in the desired goods, like clean water
Subjective scarcity happens when the scarcity is created because of mimetic desire - we only want what others want
Stage 2 of Mimetic theory: Rivalry
Mimetic desire make us want what others want, hence it creates rivalry
Because we both want a certain object, it endows that object with a magical sacred value
E.g. Toddlers playing in a room full of toys, but when one picks up a particular toy, every other toddler suddenly want that same toy
"We're kind of like obstacle addicts in the sense that if somebody else doesn't want something, we begin to doubt whether it has a lot of value. So we are always looking for people to want things. And that just causes us to be constantly looking for new rivals, right? And if we don't have one, it's an uncomfortable place to be sometimes."
- Luke Burgis
If we deconstruct the above example, the very first toddler might pick up a red fire truck because her dad is a fireman and red makes it stand out - there are fundamental reasons for choosing one toy over another
But the rest of the toddlers saw what others want (mimetic desires), thus creating a rivalry for wanting the very same toy
The impact internet has on our mimetic desires
Ambivalent - both helps and hurts mimetic desire
Smartphones are mimetic machines in our pockets
Being exposed to social media causes us to have access to many mimetic models
But because there are so many models of desires, mimetic rivalries are diffused and distributed
We can always choose another model of desire so that we don't have to want the same thing
Or, we can block people
Seeing through the lens of mimetic desire
Money
Money is one of the best ways to measure mimetic desire
Debt shows how mimetic desires exceed a person's ability to pay for it
Mimetic desire will very quickly, untether things from any objective criteria
Bitcoin
Bitcoin has no use cases compared to gold - is a flaw of gold not a benefit of gold
Bitcoin has very little utility as money because it is supposed to be the instantiation of mimetic desire - an asset where everyone wants because everyone else wants it.
The hard cap of Bitcoin promises scarcity, so mimetic rivalry will cause the price to go up, unlike USD that can be printed anytime
Stock market
Girard said that the stock market is the most mimetic institution
Alan Greenspan uses irrational exuberance, but it really just means mimetic desire that is out of control
Applies to both upside and downside - when people starts abandoning stocks, there is a sense of fear too
Have to see the parabolic rise of Gamestop or other meme stocks by understanding mimetic desire
"You can't be in a room full of people having a discussion about anything, without having your desires affected in some way. You might not think that they are, but mimetic desire is reflexive, especially at the level of markets."
- Luke Burgis
There are people who don't know anything about it but still wants to buy it
Every market bubble that happened, including the ICO mania in 2017, happens because of mimetic desires gone out of control
At the very basic level of things, human beings are involved in it, and humans beings will always follow the same path again and again because it's built into our DNA
Reflexivity is a concept by George Soros in the book The Alchemy of Finance
Financial markets are always reflexive, so expectations shape reality, which changes expectations, looping again and again in a cycle
Tribalism in crypto
A lot of tribalism in crypto - LINK marines, XRP army, Cardano army, Bitcoin maximalist too
Mimetic desire always lead to some conflict that is resolved through violence
There will be an 'in' group that has a specific ideology based on certain mimetic desires and an 'out' group that does not belong
Stronger cohesion exists among people who are 'in' - sort of like a group identity
Hence the tribal war between different maximalist groups in the crypto world
"And I think that the only way to prevent the rivalry is if you don't have the same goal."
- Luke Burgis
There are only two ways to resolve this tribalism:
If you're a maximalist, then there is no other way out other than to have conflicts because your goal is to make the coin you're adopting the worldwide standard
If you are not, and believes every coin has a specific use case that nobody else can solve, then conflicts can be avoided.
Google search can autofill questions
Hence it can suggest a desire to somebody before they even knew the right question to ask
Essentially fanning the flames of mimetic desire using an algorithm
It will be scary to think that such powers to affect outcomes at the social level is being in a completely centralized manner
Social Influencers
Eddie Bernays, the father of public relations and propaganda, understood mimetic desire enough to engineer a campaign in the 1920s to get most women to start smoking
Paying influencers now to pretend to give objective reviews on new products and services
How do we determine legitimacy?
Vitalik talked about legitimacy like it is the outcome of a coordinated effort with a lot of intentionality to it
However, Girard differs in that he believes that legitimacy is often the product of non-intentional mimesis
It happens at the unconscious level, where something is arrived at as legitimate without a lot of conscious thinking about it
"They might think they're rational, but people would rather be wrong than be alone."
- Luke Burgis
There is no foundation for what establishes as legitimacy.
The truth lies somewhere in between - there is a constant interplay between intentional cooperative effort and mimesis.
All information presented above is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Summaries are prepared by The Reading Ape. While reasonable efforts are made to provide accurate content, any errors in interpreting and summarizing the source material are ours alone. We disclaim any liability associated with the use of our content.