Re: The Demise of a Meme

From: wilkins (wilkins@wehi.EDU.AU)
Date: Thu Mar 22 2001 - 23:53:38 GMT

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    From: wilkins <wilkins@wehi.EDU.AU>
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    Subject: Re: The Demise of a Meme
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    Scott Chase wrote:
    >
    > >From: Chris Taylor <Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk>
    > >Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > >To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > >Subject: Re: The Demise of a Meme
    > >Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 15:11:44 +0000
    > >
    > >No, Jimmy Page is the only god (and he's made a fair profit).
    > >
    > >
    > Aleister Crowley's "memes" connect Jimmy Page and Ozzy Osbourne. I wonder
    > what their Bacon numbers are.
    >
    > For those not familiar with the "Bacon number", it is an index of how far
    > removed someone is from the prolific actor Kevin Bacon. It's a degrees of
    > separation thang. People are actually experts on this sort of triviality.
    >
    A much better one is the Erdös number - which is the number
    mathematicians have that indicates how many steps they are from having
    coauthored a paper with Paul Erdös. Most have a number no more than 4.

    I prefer to work out the Darwin number. My own is 4. I have shaken hands
    with someone who shook hands with someone who shook hands with Darwin.
    Assuming nobody washed in that time, I might get Chagas disease :-)

    -- 
    John Wilkins, Head, Communication Services, The Walter and Eliza Hall 
    Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia
    Homo homini aut deus aut lupus - Erasmus of Rotterdam
    <http://www.users.bigpond.com/thewilkins/darwiniana.html>
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