Why do some ideas spread like wildfire, while others resist being seen — despite their importance?

It's easier than ever to share ideas, yet some of the most interesting ideas are burrowing deeper underground, circulating quietly among group chats, texts, and whisper networks. While memes – self-replicating bits of culture – thrive in an attention-driven economy, other ideas are becoming strangely harder to find. Antimemetics: Why Some Ideas Resist Spreading explores this paradox, uncovering the hidden forces that determine what we remember, what we forget, and why some ideas – no matter how compelling – resist going viral.

Drawing on historical examples, internet phenomena, and the mechanics of attention, as well as her experiences in the technology sector, Nadia Asparouhova examines how cultural and technological systems shape what enters the public consciousness. She argues that while some ideas spread effortlessly, others are structurally resistant to spread, whether due to their complexity, our personal discomfort with these ideas, or a lack of incentives to share them.

As we collectively navigate a highly charged, memetic world where the hive mind dictates what we see and think about, Antimemetics offers a new way to think about our place in the information ecosystem. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the tide of viral noise, and often it seems like the only options are to either disengage or be swept away. But withdrawing from the conversation isn’t the only answer. By noticing what gets lost in the memetic churn, we can reclaim our attention, find thoughtful ways to participate, and shape the exchange of ideas – rather than letting it unconsciously shape us.

What others are saying

“Antimemetics is gestural and shaggy, which makes it a generative and fun read….The book never feels like a vector for the reproduction of some prefabricated case. It has the texture of thought, or of a group chat.” – Gideon Lewis-Kraus, The New Yorker

“I like nothing better than finding a name for a phenomenon that’s all around me, but that I don’t have a name for yet. [Antimemetics] offered me exactly this.” – Ben Davis, Artnet News

“Antimemetics is not a book about cancel culture; it is the first post-cancel culture book.” – Applied Divinity Studies

“It is a book that can't be summed up. It is, among other things, the best history I've read about the last decade of the internet.” — Henrik Karlsson, Escaping Flatland

About the author

Nadia Asparouhova is a writer and researcher. Her work has been supported by Emergent Ventures, Ford Foundation, Schmidt Futures, Ethereum Foundation, and others. Her writing has appeared in Wired, The New Atlantis, The Point, Tablet Magazine, and Asterisk. She is the author of Working in Public: The Making and Maintenance of Open Source Software (Stripe Press), and Roads and Bridges: The Unseen Labor Behind Our Digital Infrastructure (Ford Foundation).