What do the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist and a meme dog have in common? To mark his 83rd birthday today, Richard Dawkins has joined Doge in the ranks of those who have lent their name to a cryptocurrency. The scientist and author announced the arrival of Dawkoin on social media last night, though he made clear that he wasn’t behind this development himself. “I don’t even know what that means,” Dawkins said of memecoins. “But it sounds intriguing.”
Well, just fancy that. To commemorate my birthday, 26th March, and the coining of the word “meme” in 1976, somebody has created a meme coin, the Dawkoin. I don’t even know what that means, but it sounds intriguing.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) March 25, 2024
The post merited a positive response from X owner Elon Musk, whose online presence has increasingly been marked out by his fondness for memes. The tech mogul has Dawkins to thank for that, given that the word meme was first used in the latter’s 1976 book The Selfish Gene. Dawkoin was therefore hailed online as “most memecoin of all memecoins”. The atheist academic’s progression to beloved elder shitposter continues apace…
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