Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19980909231335.00d6dcf0@popmail.mcs.net>
Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 23:13:35 -0500
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net>
Subject: Diffusion of Innovations (Was Re: Substance and Form)
In-Reply-To: <SIMEON.9806011110.B@JM1773.livjm.ac.uk>
At 11:29 AM 6/1/98 -0400, Derek Gatherer wrote:
>Aaron
Aaron writing:
>> I don't have the 1971 edition, but Rogers 1983 definitely talks about not
>> just artifacts and behaviors, but also propagating information in human
>> hosts. (Though he does not use the term "host.") To quote from the preface
>> by Rogers himself, (p. XIX), "...The diffusion of innovations, thus, is
>> essentially a social process in which subjectively perceived information
>> about a new idea is communicated." Later sections talk about the spread of
>> "knowledge," "software information," "opinions," etc. These all qualify as
>> mnemons in my usage.
>
Derek writing:
>Now that is interesting, because he doesn't say that in the 1971
>edition. Obviously Rogers was influenced by the growth of ideational
>anthropology in the late 60s and 70s. Apparently there's a new edition
>out now (which will be the 4th, I think) so it will be interesting to
>see what Rogers currently thinks.
>
[snip]
Derek,
I have now checked the new 4th edition (1995), and he says the same thing
he said in the 3rd edition. Rogers's statement that "...The diffusion of
innovations, thus, is essentially a social process in which subjectively
perceived information about a new idea is communicated" is equivalent to
asserting that thought contagions play a key role in the diffusion of
innovations. Artifacts, behaviors, and thoughts co-propagate, to be sure,
but Rogers definitely goes against any assertion that the diffusion of
innovations consists of *just* artifacts and behaviors.
--Aaron Lynch
http://www.mcs.net/~aaron/thoughtcontagion.html
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