Re: Is Suicide Contagious? A Case Study in Applied Memetics

From: Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Thu Apr 19 2001 - 16:58:21 BST

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Subject: Re: Is Suicide Contagious? A Case Study in Applied Memetics
Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 11:58:21 -0400
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From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
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    On 04/19/01 10:19, Robin Faichney said this-

    >> One wonders if non-suicidal people _ever_ commit suicide? It seems
    >> impossible- it is certainly unlogical semantically.
    >
    >Ever heard of "the tipping point"? :-)

    Well, I suppose we're here wondering, well, some of us, whether or not
    there is a tipping point with behaviors like that- whether a magic
    command will lead, like a hypnotist's wet dream, to unparalleled excesses
    of wantonness and bizarrity, not to mention rabid buying sprees and extra
    gifts on top of smiling acquiescence to paying professional fees....

    Is there a skewing force that is manipulatible in human behavior?

    There is much to deny the supposed influence of advertising, when taking
    into account random distributions, although there is much to be said for
    simple amount of exposure- There is no such thing as bad publicity, but
    it would be nice if memetics was more of a reputational entity for the
    expositional content....

    But, I also guess 'would be nice' is also 'should' and I shouldn't....

    - Wade

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