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I loved your take on the Internet but with sentient vehicles. Is there anything about meme/internet culture centered on that in general?
Semi-inspired by MSC Magnifica doing Seven Nation Army(https://youtu.be/sTlTxFio6DY) and all the Thomas memes.
Oh yeah - Sentient vehicles have been on the internet just as long as anyone else has been. There’s a lot of stuff that’s out there, so here’s a brief selection:
Boats
Since consistent satellite internet has allowed the world’s maritime fleet to be connected to the internet, ships have been using it, often to great effect. Maritime Twitter is often a source of many wonderful memes, known colloquially as “shiposting” and ranging from the niche “Why is that your Anchor Chain” meme to the much more mainstream “Propeller Pic” image macro.
In regards to the video you linked, well... Most large passenger vessels have a sense of vanity that outdoes even peacocks - they do not like being outdone. It has been common practice for many years in military circles for outgoing naval vessels to play music over their 1MC PA system as they leave port, however it wasn’t as common in civilian shipping until companies like Disney Cruise Lines began equipping their vessels with horns that could be programmed to play music. At some point in 2005, Disney’s Magic encountered USS Carl Vinson in the Caribbean. Being nice, Magic played “When You Wish Upon A Star” on her horn. Carl Vinson responded with his 1MC system, and figuratively blew Magic out of the water with the full version of “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You”. Nobody likes to be second place in a horn showdown, and when Magic updated her music system, it naturally made Wonder, Disney’s other ship at the time, upgrade hers as well. The two Disney ships soon began to show up the rest of the Florida cruise ships, which meant that they updated their sound systems, and so on, and so on. By 2018, just about every major passenger vessel and most self-respecting cargo ships had sound systems that could beat Metallica at their own game. In 2017, Magic had her revenge on Carl Vinson when they again met up, this time in San Diego. Vinson, not aware of what he’d done back in 2005, played a very nice rendition of “Let It Go” over his 1MC. Magic then pulled in nice and close and proceeded to blow out everyone’s ears with a version of “Anchors Aweigh” that was so loud, it shattered glass on Carl’s bridge.
Aircraft
Commercial aircraft are some of the most insular communities in a sentient vehicle world because their massive size and surprising frailty means that they can’t really interact with the general public in the same manner, so their internet presence is somewhat different from the rest of society, as they mainly communicate with either other airplanes in person, while expanding their communication to online friends. This means that plane memes, while often funny, are usually mildly incomprehensible, like the “Tailfin” meme, which would require two hours and a whiteboard to explain the context behind it.
Trains
Train memes are very similar to any interoffice in-joke, as most locomotives are forced to deal with the same bullshit no matter where they are. Jokes about PSR, Railway Unions, Union Pacific, The FRA, Amtrak, and many other such subjects are common.
A notable subculture in the English-speaking world is “British Locomotive Memes”, which primarily consist of extremely dark jokes about the 1950-1990 British Locomotive Genocide, in which thousands of British Rail steam locomotives and first-generation diesels were withdrawn from service and scrapped. Most of the creators of these memes were survivors of that time period, and multiple PhDs in psychology, cultural anthropology, and sociology have been earned in trying to determine if these memes are a coping mechanism, British Dark Humour, or something else. Results are so far inconclusive.
