Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA26967 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 14 Jun 2000 13:22:32 +0100 From: "Joseph" <neohuman@goldenfuture.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Imitation or transmission? Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2000 08:20:20 -0400 Message-ID: <000a01bfd5fa$e856b4c0$13281e8c@ultracom.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook 8.5, Build 4.71.2173.0 In-Reply-To: <20000614005506.91348.qmail@hotmail.com> Importance: Normal X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Diana Stevenson wrote:
> I would call all this memetic engineering but maybe I've misunderstood the
> term. Couldn't all propaganda and PR "spin" be regarded as the concious
> transmission of memes? And what else is advertising and viral marketing?
To my mind (and admittedly I'm an amateur and a newcomer to the list), these
"single-shot" examples don't count as true "memetic engineering" because the
memes involved weren't specifically engineered to self-replicate.
That is, they rely on a single point of repetitive transmission in order to
take root in the target audience. The memes in question weren't designed for
self-replication, they weren't engineered to make themselves more efficient
at rooting themselves in a host medium. (Memes that are engineered to
specifically capitalize on these abilities would be "designer memes"; they
deliberately hit the triggers that make them more likely to be reproduced.)
I make the same argument in regards to most modern advertising; spitting out
memes isn't memetic engineering, it's memetic propagation.
True, elegant, memetic engineering would take advantage of the meme's
natural tendency to be transmitted and form memeplexes with other memes
(often ones that on the surface appear to be completely unrelated). National
Socialism would seem to be an example of a nascent form of this; a complex
of ideas-- racism, expansionist geopolitics, back-to-nature ideology,
totalitarianism, the cult of the Leader, etc.-- that work together to
reinforce one another and are chosen to promote their own replication. I say
that National Socialism is only a nascent form, because elements of the
memeplex weren't deliberately chosen, but were grafted on to the memeplex at
various stages through "natural" means.
I can't honestly think of a real-world example of the sort of memetic
engineering I'm talking about, completely using designer memes to effect a
particular outcome, but I can imagine one. Let's say you want to promote the
"we should irradiate food" meme among a target population. Step one:
introduce the "prepackaged food can be dangerous" meme (which hits the
"danger" trigger). Give it time to penetrate. Step two: introduce the
"radiation can be safe" meme-- completely unconnected to food, irradiation,
or anything else-- and give it time to penetrate. Step three: introduce the
"food can be irradiated to make it safe" meme. When all three of the memes
hit the same subject-- food is dangerous, radiation is safe, food can be
irradiated-- they combine to form the "we should irradiate food" meme.
I realize it's a crude example, but hopefully it illustrates what I would
mean by the difference between "mere" advertising and true memetic
engineering. Advertising presents a single meme which relies on repetition
for reproduction, while memetic engineering uses designer memes that more
efficiently replicate themselves and self-organizing memeplexes (and ideally
a combination of the two) to achieve the desired outcome.
Joseph
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