From: AaronLynch@aol.com
Date: Wed 04 Feb 2004 - 00:09:54 GMT
In a message dated 2/3/2004 9:03:26 AM Central Standard
Time, hkhenson@rogers.com writes:
Re: groupthink gauntlet: MacArthur's ill-fated drive toward the Yalu
> At 11:35 AM 03/02/04 +0000, you wrote:
> > <and,as the inventor of the word "memetics,">
> >
> > ... have I missed something? Who's claiming this and on what
> >grounds? Or am I missing some ironic meaning?
>
> Her email was not intended to be posted, and Arel is not reading the list
> now, but she did coin the word. She gets credit in Hofstadter's
> _MetaMagical Themas_. I would give you the page number, but my copy is
> loaned out. Look in the index for "Arel Lucas."
>
> Keith Henson
Hi Keith.
By coincidence, I have recently made an expanded foray into early
transmission of evolutionary cultural replicator theory, and words
connected with it. I have uncovered some fascinating events and
phenomena, much too much to explain here. I can, however, confirm
that, as far as I know, the first published appearance of the word
"memetics" used as a noun to name a line of study appeared in
Hoftstadter's _Metamagical Themas_, page 65. (Basic Books, 1985).
To quote: "... Arel Lucas suggested that the discipline that studies
memes and their connections to humans and other potential carriers
of them be known as _memetics_, by analogy with 'genetics'. I think
this is a good suggestion, and hop it will be adopted."
As it happens, I also have the original letter sent by Arel Lucas to
Douglas Hofstadter and eventually forwarded to me by Hofstadter. The
letter is dated March 4, 1983, and bears markings by Hofstadter and
one or two other people who pre-screened letters to his Scientific
American column for him. The name "Hofstadter" in the salutation is
elevated a conspicuous 1 mm above neighboring text. The game
theoretic significance of this aberration is still being studied.
Bidding for this unique historical document at Krystee's London will
start at £1.5 million, the price of a chair fit for issuance of ex
cathedra pronouncements... Until bidding starts, the document will
of course remain carefully preserved in a cryogenic case using
superfluid Helium-3 as coolant.
Authentication was conducted by carbon-14 mass spectrometry, which
determined that the trees from which the pages were made had lived
during the 1970s. During the forensic document analysis, a single
strand of DNA was also recovered. The molecule was analyzed using an
atomic force resonant microprobe in conjunction with a giant
magnetoresistive nuclear resonance microprobe. Specific patterns
were found in combinations of carbon-12 and carbon-13 placements in
the ribose substructures. Further analysis revealed that the
*INFORMATION* in the DNA was stored in the carbon isotope sequence
of the ribose substructure, which when read out in 5-bit ASCII
happened to be identical with the text of the letter upon which the
DNA was found. The finding reveals a level of technological
advancement considered anomalyous for a 20th century document.
--Aaron Lynch
Thought Contagion Science Page:
http://www.thoughtcontagion.com
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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