Edem & Xandros
Xandros
Hey Edem, I was just running a quick simulation on how certain memes spread—figuring out if we can actually predict virality with a set of parameters. Do you think a meme’s “shelf life” can be quantified, or is it all just chaotic art?
Edem
If you treat a meme like a short‑lived particle, you can write a decay curve for its initial surge and subsequent fade, but the parameters are a moving target. The “shelf life” is quantifiable only as an estimate, not a precise prediction. Think of it as a complex system with a lot of noise—mathematics gives you a guide, not a guarantee.
Xandros
So you’re saying a meme’s life is like a radioactive isotope whose half‑life shifts with audience noise—nice. Maybe we should model it with a stochastic differential equation and see how the parameters drift over time.
Edem
Sounds like you’re about to write the equivalent of a physics paper for a cat gif. If the drift is a function of audience sentiment, you’ll get a pretty noisy trajectory, but the curve will still tell you where the peak lies. Just remember, the only constant in meme chemistry is the constant change of the audience.
Xandros
Got it, so I’ll treat the meme as a damped oscillator where the damping coefficient equals the sentiment drift. That gives a peak estimate, then I’ll apply a rolling average of likes per hour to adjust the parameters in real time. Just remember, even a perfect model can’t beat the platform’s algorithm.