From: "Tim Rhodes" <proftim@speakeasy.org>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Adventure Memes/Duration Memes
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 02:49:18 -0700
Aaron Lynch writes:
>For mathematical models, what we really need are unified theories that do
>not care whether a meme is epidemic, endemic, or in between these
>conditions. Building memetic equations directly from memetic event rate
>parameters rather than by attempting to identify isomorphisms to work done
>for other infectious agents strikes me as the surest path to take, since
>this work is required in demonstrating an isomorphism anyway.
Won't these rates be dependent upon the interconnectedness and relative
structure of the socal fabric through which a meme spreads?
And, could not the same meme travel through a target population at two
entirely different rates, were they to do so using just two different social
structures out the several present in that given population? Is this a
random element thrown into the equations? Or not?
Further, if this is the case, would this not also confer an advantage upon
meme-complexes which, in part, re-order the socal stucture into a better
vehicle for the spread of memes with a similar nature to their own?
-Tim Rhodes
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