RE: Rare original memetics document found

From: Vincent Campbell (VCampbell@dmu.ac.uk)
Date: Thu 05 Feb 2004 - 14:33:49 GMT

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            <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.">
    >
            Thanks Aaron, but I'm still confused. How can this be attributed to someone, when it's merely a logical linguistic step from meme to memetics, as in gene to genetics, and similarly why would someone be writing things like 'hope it will be adopted'? Besides, the concept of memes is what's important, and surely that's what's important to get adopted, assuming one's in agreement with the concept. Still, if people want to cling on to their claims to fame...

            Vincent

    =============================================================== 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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