Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id CAA15363 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 5 Feb 2002 02:29:06 GMT Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 18:23:21 -0800 Message-Id: <200202050223.g152NLs12120@mail13.bigmailbox.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary X-Mailer: MIME-tools 4.104 (Entity 4.116) X-Originating-Ip: [66.156.195.136] From: "Joe Dees" <joedees@addall.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: The Tipping Point, perspective Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is)
>Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2002 18:36:39 -0500
> The Tipping Point, perspective "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> memetics@mmu.ac.ukReply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>
>Here is a quick little excerpt from an interview with Malcolm Gladwell,
>the author of The Tipping Point. Joe wants me to ask him if
>consciousness is a godelian phenomenon, and I wondered if he would know
>what I was asking, so, in the event I have to explain Deesian emergence
>in some cogent and swift way amidst an audience of book lovers,
>scientists, newage loonies, Cambridge street persons, academic
>intelligentsia, and whatever else sort of human refuse decides to come
>and listen to Gladwell along with me on Thursday this week, I want Joe
>to actually provide me with the full text of his question....
>
The question is : Does he consider the evolution of brain complexity beyond the Godelian threshhold that allows for self-reference to itself be a tipping point permitting the creation and evolution of culture? I do.
>
>Anyway, looking at this exchange below, I will not be trying to couch it
>in memetic terms, since he doesn't much like the word, and uses
>'epidemic' and 'virus' much more often.
>
>- Wade
>
>***********
>
>5. Are you talking about the idea of memes, that has become so popular
>in academic circles recently?
>
>It's very similar. A meme is a idea that behaves like a virus--that
>moves through a population, taking hold in each person it infects. I
>must say, though, that I don't much like that term. The thing that
>bothers me about the discussion of memes is that no one ever tries to
>define exactly what they are, and what makes a meme so contagious. I
>mean, you can put a virus under a microscope and point to all the genes
>on its surface that are responsible for making it so dangerous. So what
>happens when you look at an infectious idea under a microscope? I have a
>chapter where I try to do that. I use the example of children's
>television shows like Sesame Street and the new Nickelodeon program
>called Blues Clues. Both those are examples of shows that started
>learning epidemics in preschoolers, that turned kids onto reading and
>"infected" them with literacy. We sometimes think of Sesame Street as
>purely the result of the creative genius of people like Jim Henson and
>Frank Oz. But the truth is that it is carefully and painstaking
>engineered, down to the smallest details. There's a wonderful story, in
>fact, about the particular scientific reason for the creation of Big
>Bird. It's very funny. But I won't spoil it for you.
>
>6. How would you classify The Tipping Point? Is it a science book?
>
>I like to think of it as an intellectual adventure story. It draws from
>psychology and sociology and epidemiology, and uses examples from the
>worlds of business and education and fashion and media. If I had to draw
>an analogy to another book, I'd say it was like Daniel Goleman's
>Emotional Intelligence, in the sense that it takes theories and ideas
>from the social sciences and shows how they can have real relevance to
>our lives. There's a whole section of the book devoted to explaining the
>phenomenon of word of mouth, for example. I think that word of mouth is
>something created by three very rare and special psychological types,
>whom I call Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. I profile three people who
>I think embody those types, and then I use the example of Paul Revere
>and his midnight ride to point out the subtle characteristics of this
>kind of social epidemic. So just in that chapter there is a little bit
>of sociology, a little of psychology and a little bit of history, all in
>aid of explaining a very common but mysterious phenomenon that we deal
>with every day. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not sure that this
>book fits into any one category. That's why I call it an adventure
>story. I think it will appeal to anyone who wants to understand the
>world around them in a different way. I think it can give the reader an
>advantage--a new set of tools. Of course, I also think they'll be in for
>a very fun ride.
>
>7. What do you hope readers will take away from the book?
>
>One of the things I'd like to do is to show people how to start
>"positive" epidemics of their own. The virtue of an epidemic, after all,
>is that just a little input is enough to get it started, and it can
>spread very, very quickly. That makes it something of obvious and
>enormous interest to everyone from educators trying to reach students,
>to businesses trying to spread the word about their product, or for that
>matter to anyone who's trying to create a change with limited resources.
>The book has a number of case studies of people who have successfully
>started epidemics--an advertising agency, for example, and a breast
>cancer activist. I think they are really fascinating. I also take a
>pressing social issue, teenage smoking, and break it down and analyze
>what an epidemic approach to solving that problem would look like. The
>point is that by the end of the book I think the reader will have a
>clear idea of what starting an epidemic actually takes. This is not an
>abstract, academic book. It's very practical. And it's very hopeful.
>It's brain software.
>
>Beyond that, I think that The Tipping Point is a way of making sense of
>the world, because I'm not sure that the world always makes as much
>sense to us as we would hope. I spent a great deal of time in the book
>talking about the way our minds work--and the peculiar and sometimes
>problematic ways in which our brains process information. Our
>intuitions, as humans, aren't always very good. Changes that happen
>really suddenly, on the strength of the most minor of input, can be
>deeply confusing. People who understand The Tipping Point, I think, have
>a way of decoding the world around them.
>
>
>==============================================================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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