Re: virus: E-Mail Thought Contaigion

Brett Lane Robertson (unameit@tctc.com)
Wed, 03 Dec 1997 20:14:37 -0500


>>This is a unique demonstration of a meme. Our* ideal is to replicate the
>mechanical process of a meme. *Your* job is to reproduce this process--AND
>YOU CAN ADD YOUR OWN "PRODUCT". Your message will be included according to
>your standards. In quantity! With quality! To Your satisfaction and with
>the greatest possible effect!
>>
>>Just place your own message below the line where it says <your message
>here> leaving everything above <your message here> unchanged and forward to
>several friends. (Or leave the entire message unchanged and forward
>anyway...but keep virus@lucifer.com in the address line so we can compare
>and contrast the similarities and differences between the original <message>
>and the "copies").
>>
>><your message here>
>>
>>*Virus is a collection of mutually-supporting ideas (a meme-complex)
>encompassing philosophy, science, technology, politics, and religion. The
>core ideas are based on evolution and memetics because one of the primary
>design goals was survivability through adaptation (religions die, not
>because they grow old, but because they become obsolete). If a new religion
>is designed around the premise of continuously integrating better (more
>accurate, more useful) concepts while ensuring the survival of its
>believers, it could conceivably achieve true immortality.
>(http://www.lucifer.com/virus/intro.html)

List (No comments on the above?),

Or, how about a memetic "joke". We can write a joke about memetics, post it
to several joke lists (or send it to friends) and then report back on
whether it shows up in our email again?!?!

A joke is a good meme form...it has the paradoxical structure I see as being
necessary to a meme...there are preliminary studies which could be
incorporated into our study from the pov of the spreading of jokes AS memes
(I remember several studies about how jokes spread)...it would be fun to
write memetic jokes (wouldn't it?)...SEND IN YOUR JOKE NOW!

Brett

ps...A memeticist and a geneticist were in a plane which was about to crash.
There was only one parachute. The geneticist said "My genes must survive, I
should be the one who gets the chute." The memeticist said "OK, but don't
jump until MY life flashes before your eyes."

(While they were pondering this concept, the pilot--a member of the "Church
of Virus"*--took the chute and jumped...which just goes to show you: You
can screw some of the people some of the time or you can screw all of the
people all of the time; but you are really only screwing yourself).

*Virus is a collection of mutually-supporting ideas (a meme-complex)
encompassing philosophy, science, technology, politics, and religion. The
core ideas are based on evolution and memetics because one of the primary
design goals was survivability through adaptation (religions die, not
because they grow old, but because they become obsolete). If a new religion
is designed around the premise of continuously integrating better (more
accurate, more useful) concepts while ensuring the survival of its
believers, it could conceivably achieve true immortality.
(http://www.lucifer.com/virus/intro.html)

Returning,
rBERTS%n
http://www.tctc.com/~unameit/makepage.htm

Cogito, ergo sum: I think, therefore I am.

Rene Descartes