Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19990225143836.00ca6360@popmail.mcs.net>
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 14:38:36 -0600
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net>
Subject: "Retarding the Progress": A Call for Specifics
In-Reply-To: <2CDFE2C8F598D21197C800C04F911B200CAE91@DELTA.newhouse.akzo
Commentaries to Gatherer's paper "Why the Thought Contagion Metaphor is
Retarding the Progress of Memetics" are now online at
http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1999/vol3. (Gatherer's replies to these
comments are not yet there.)
While the term "thought contagion" is a non-technical term devised mainly
for succinctness and to be more self-explanatory in lay usage than the term
"meme," the allegation of "retarding the progress of memetics" was also
lodged against my 1998 JoM-EMIT paper, despite its emphasis on
"non-metaphoric memetics."
As one who would rather not "retard the progress of memetics," I would like
to see how either my JoM-EMIT paper or my book might have done so in a
specific topic: the Hutterites. Both Derek and Paul have just joined me in
discussing the Hutterites (in the "Group Selection" thread), so perhaps
they can now apply their insights to that specific case. In illustrating
the damage that to memetics, it has the advantage of being a topic actually
discussed in Lynch 1996 and Lynch 1998, as distinct from topics not
discussed, such as Windsor knots and Napoleonic death dates. It has the
further advantage of being a specific topic discussed in *both* my book and
my 1998 paper, and also discussed recently on this list by critics of my
book and 1998 paper.
Specifically, then, how has "the thought contagion metaphor" or the
"non-metaphoric memetics" of Lynch 1998 retarded the progress of memetic
analysis of the Hutterite movement?
Gatherer, D., (1998b). Why the `Thought Contagion' Metaphor is Retarding
the Progress of Memetics. Journal of Memetics-Evolutionary Models of
Information Transmission, 2.
http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1998/vol2/gatherer_d.html
Lynch, A. (1996). Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads Through Society:
The New Science of Memes. New York: Basic Books.
Lynch, A. (1998). Units, Events and Dynamics in Memetic Evolution. Journal
of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 2.
http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-mit/1998/vol2/lynch_a.html
--Aaron Lynch
http://www.mcs.net/~aaron/thoughtcontagion.html
===============================================================
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