If you ask a GameStop investor what the number 7:41 means to them, prepare to be pulled down a rabbit hole you may never leave. If you ask what Ice Cream means, they may open the calculator app to estimate their pending brokerage value.

The Meme Stock era—most prominently expressed through the GameStop saga—has shown the versatility of the meme format as a way to communicate across traditionally opaque barriers. Where a CEO would not want to reveal inside information to the public, he can instead speak directly to shareholders in a meme language only they understand.

An additional advantage of this language is its imperceptible nature to Wall Street’s increasingly influential algorithms. Where numbers are crunched in nanoseconds, quarterly reports analyzed in milliseconds, and trading strategies updated accordingly, the esoteric meme remains beyond the grasp of those ones and zeros that strip humanity from the markets.

In many ways, the Meme Stock revolution represents the refusal of the human spirit to surrender its decision-making and communication responsibilities to a machine. In the hidden meanings of the many evolving memes that define this era, we find the eternal heart and soul of humanity—forever unshackled by the latest chains of technological progress.