RE: virus: Angelica de Meme

Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Mon, 7 Apr 1997 10:41:01 -0700 (PDT)


On Mon, 7 Apr 1997, Wright, James 7929 wrote:

> >Are there experiments that can be performed to gather quantifiable data
> to support
> the hypothesis? <
> Try this one: postulate a given meme in this forum, which you find
> demonstrably true, beneficial to the global society, and worthwhile. See
> how long it takes, with no more effort than the existence of this mailing
> list and such offline encouragement as the members choose to exert to
> spread it, to become known through a measurable segment of the global
> society (as demonstrated by the first major-media story found by anyone
> on the list that mentions it, favorably or not). Call this time-period
> M(t), the global propagation interval, and repeat the experiment a few
> times to see if M(t) is constant, varies according to the perceived
> strength of the given meme, or whatever.

How about the meta-meme? When did Dawkins publish _The Selfish Gene_?
Has anyone seen a major-media story on memetics yet?

I think the global propagation interval might be a little too long for me.
But this is definatly on the right track. Just seeing how quickly a
meme spreads /inside/ the list has become quite illuminating, of late, for
me.

-Prof. Tim