Stanovich, in his book The Robot's Rebellion, refers to it as a Neurathian bootstrap and uses it as an analogy to the recursive nature of revising one's beliefs.[3] A "rotten plank" on the ship, for instance, might refer to a meme virus or a junk meme (i.e., a meme that is either maladaptive to the individual, or serves no beneficial purpose for the realization of an individual's life goals). It may be impossible to bring the ship to shore for repairs, therefore one may stand on planks that are not rotten in order to repair or replace the ones that are. At a later time, the planks previously used for support may be tested by standing on other planks that are not rotten: