Re: virus: Project in grid formation

Brett Lane Robertson (unameit@tctc.com)
Sat, 25 Oct 1997 14:51:34 -0500


3. While chess is a game (there you go, Richard...), it is also a
historical and cross-cultural memetic artifact, understood (in a vital,
primal sort of way?) by individuals as well as societies. I would need a
post the size of one of Brett's to even begin to list the cultural
allusions chess provides the analyst. (Wade)

List,

My posts aren't usually long...though they may be complicated, broad, wide,
or deep. The chess idea isn't bad (though I wonder what the *point* is--to
infect people with the memetic idea?). I think something along the lines of
"The Glass Bead Game" (from Herman Hesse's novel of the same game)
appropriately represents most (if not all) of the ideas of memetics--and
hasn't been invented yet.

The Glass Bead Game: Each bead represents a basic idea (meme). Groups of
beads represent complexes. An individual places a bead or
beads...representing a part of an overall "behavior" pattern, or context.
The next person places a bead within the pattern formed. A new concept is
implied. The first person is "infected"...he is influenced to behave by
adjusting the pattern using a meme (bead) of his own to influence the complex.

"The Glass Bead Game" isn't a pop icon like the chess game, so using these
ideas within the context of chess would cause it to spread faster. The
Glass Bead Game is a literary fiction and hasn't been implimented yet
(except as "pente" or "go" or "othello" or the like) but not with each
bead--or piece--representing an idea. So it's already been thought out,
etc. Sure, why not?

Brett

Returning,
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