kevin@decwrl.dec.com (Kevin S. Van Horn) (12/19/90)
I've seen memetics discussed from time to time in this newsgroup, and I have
a question: is there a real theory of memetics? Everything I've read on the
subject to this point has been rather vague and mostly metaphorical. A real
scientific theory has to be capable of generating predictions of some sort
that can actually be tested. Is there a theory of memetics that can
provide concrete, testable predictions about the spread of ideas? Or,
perhaps, even aid one in designing an idea for maximum propagation?
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Kevin S. Van Horn | It is the means that determine the ends.
kevin@maspar.com |
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Kevin S. Van Horn | What we really need is a *system* of government,
argosy!kevin@decwrl.dec.com | not a Government; the latter is merely a form
| of institutionalized crime.
[There is a scholarly journal devoted to memetics, called the Journal
of Ideas, published by the Institute for Memetic Research, Box 16327,
Panama City, FL 32406-1327. This would probably represent the most
organized thought on the subject. There is a substantial body of
literature on the history of ideas, and it might be possible to
re-systematize it using the ideas of memetics, and to see whether
this brought any advantages or new insights. Other than that, however,
memetics seems to be more an application of the basic Darwinian
mechanism than a theory *sui generis*.
--JoSH]