Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id VAA13962 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 21 Jan 2002 21:41:16 GMT Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020121155425.0351c300@pop.cogeco.ca> X-Sender: hkhenson@pop.cogeco.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 16:38:46 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@cogeco.ca> Subject: RE: Why memeoids? In-Reply-To: <NEBBKOADILIOKGDJLPMAAEPBCJAA.debivort@umd5.umd.edu> References: <5.1.0.14.0.20020118211014.02c3f7b0@pop.cogeco.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 09:00 AM 21/01/02 -0500, "Lawrence DeBivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu>
wrote:
>Hi Keith
>I'm catching up on emails...
>
>
> > >Lawrence DeBivort wrote:
> > >I must confess that I am grateful that the US government -- or ANY
> > >government for that matter -- knows much about memetics.
> >
> > Keith: They don't of course. Not for a lack of trying on my part I should
>add.
>
>My concern is that memetics can give rise to such a powerful technology that
>those with the resources and access to the media (e.g. well-attended press
>conferences) will be able to overwhelm the societal processes of
>belief-formation.
Consider, this is somewhat like introducing genetic engineering on top of
millenia of selective breeding. It took quite a few years for the field to
do much that was not already being done by other means.
Given PR, advertizing, and propaganda, laying a foundation of evolutionary
psychology and memetics under these well established fields may take years
to decades before this generates results that could not be done in other ways.
>I think that in contacts with government agencies it is
>better to speak in conventional terms of 'brainwashing.' Not that the US
>government hasn't dabbled in this, alas. A search for 'Sid Gottlieb' and
>Washington Post Magazine back in December 2001 on the web will explain this
>further.
"Brainwashing" is ok, but it means too many different things. I think one
step might be to replace it with terms such as capture-bonding and "reward
conditioning bonding" or other more specific terms.
snip
> > If you really wanted to be paranoid, maybe this *has* been modeled by
> > secret government agencies.
>
>I don't see any trace of this.
I agree.
Keith Henson
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