Re: earliest memetics paper?

From: derek gatherer (dgatherer2002@yahoo.co.uk)
Date: Tue 10 Feb 2004 - 10:14:02 GMT

  • Next message: derek gatherer: "first use of adjective 'memetic'"

    Dirac, Paul 1902–84 British theoretical physicist, of Swiss descent

    1. I think it is a general rule that the originator of a new idea is not the most suitable person to develop it, because his fears of something going wrong are really too strong.
    [The Development of Quantum Theory (1971)]

    How to cite this entry:
    "Dirac, Paul" The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations. Ed. Elizabeth Knowles. Oxford University Press, 2002. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press.
    <http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t93.e501

     --- Keith Henson <hkhenson@rogers.com> wrote: > At 02:41 PM 09/02/04 +0000, derek wrote:
    > >I came across the following title in the library -
    > I
    > >think this may be the earliest use of the
    > 'contagion
    > >metaphor' to describe the spread of ideas.
    > >
    > >"A plea for the Protestant faith; or, an antidote
    > >against the infectious contagion of antichristian
    > >darkness; vended by Mr. Alexander Pirie ...in which
    > >the morality of national covenants is asserted ...
    > /
    > >by a member of the Associate Session at
    > >Auchtermuchty."
    > >
    > >published in Glasgow in 1771
    >
    > Another statement encapsulating the meme about memes
    > is "Ideas have a life
    > of their own." I have referred to this is "an
    > age-old saying," but now
    > that I look around, it might not be. There are
    > about a hundred places
    > where Google finds it on the web, and 65 on Google
    > groups.
    >
    > However, I could find no attributions or even dated
    > sources, and it does
    > not show up in any of quotations sites I looked at.
    > The first use on
    > Usenet is in 1992--leaving open the unsettling
    > possibility that I coined
    > the phrase in the _Whole Earth Review_ version of my
    > 1987 _Analog_
    > article. (Or that the editor slipped it in as part
    > of a new third paragraph?)
    >
    > It *sounds* like it should be an age-old saying.
    >
    > A few years ago I was involved in tracking down the
    > origin of the "Ancient
    > Chinese curse," "May you live in interesting times."
    >
    > http://hawk.fab2.albany.edu/sidebar/sidebar.htm
    >
    > Dr. DeLong (a Professor at SUNY-Albany) did a huge
    > detective job looking
    > for the origin of the saying after Chinese scholars
    > said "It isn't
    > ours." Because I was aware of his search, I
    > incidentally spotted what is
    > probably the origin of the saying (Eric Frank
    > Russell, 1950) and sent it
    > off to him.
    >
    > If anyone can locate a source for "Ideas have a life
    > of their own" earlier
    > than 1987, I would sure appreciate hearing about it.
    >
    > Keith Henson
    >
    >
    >
    >
    ===============================================================
    > 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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    =============================================================== 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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