Date: Mon, 19 May 1997 04:11:25 +0800 (GMT-8)
From: Dave Gross <dave@moorlock.eorbit.net>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Introduction
In-Reply-To: <F654617B30@zondisk.sepa.tudelft.nl>
> I see it works, let me introduce myself, maybe a good idea for all
> members who want to.
My name is Dave Gross. I run the "Memetics Papers on the Web" page at
http://www.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Memetics/ and the "'Blue Star' LSD Tattoo
Urban Legend" pages at http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/other/tattoo/
My current projects are split in two directions. On the one hand, I'm
engaged in these very philosophical and sci-fi musings about the origin of
consciousness as a working simulation of a memetic ecosystem. On the
other hand, I'm trying to move the field of memetics away from the
sci-fi/philosophical and toward the scientific.
In support of the first direction, I'm spending a lot of time smoking
marijuana in cafes and scribbling madly in notebooks.
In support of the second direction, I'm trying to dissect the "blue star"
legend (of which I have dozens of examples "caught in the wild") into its
components, and catalog the varieties. I'm hoping that I can use the
fossil record as I have assembled it to create a "family tree" showing how
different varieties of the "blue star" meme evolved by progressive
mutations from a common ancestor.
You can see some of my work in this area in this otherwise-hidden page:
http://www.lycaeum.org/drugs/other/tattoo/Table/
I'm very excited about JOM-emit, and I'm especially glad it's a web-based,
rather than paper-based publication. It seems like the best community of
memetics researchers around is the one that's likely to show up in this
mailing list -- I'm eager for the discussions to begin!
-- Dave
P.S. Tip of the week: Iona & Peter Opie's book "The Lore and Language of
Schoolchildren" is a very in-depth study of the folklore and culture of
schoolkids in the british isles. "Memetics" is nowhere mentioned in the
book, but that's really what it's all about.
===============================================================
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