Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19990525140235.00d98e6c@popmail.mcs.net>
Date: Tue, 25 May 1999 14:02:35 -0500
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net>
Subject: Re: A missing link & meme conference
In-Reply-To: <000c01bea6ba$76835940$7e6445c2@paul>
At 04:25 PM 5/25/99 +0200, you wrote:
>>Aaron:
>>
>>in your
>>"review" of my book, you re-wrote the title of Chapter 2 from "a missing
>>link" to "the missing link," resulting in a vast shift in meaning that
>>served your polemic purposes.
>
>This speaks for itself...
>
>Read the review at http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/JASSS/2/2/review4.html
>
Sure, I've read it. I read the part where you said that I claimed (contrary
to all I've been saying) that my brand of memetics is "the missing link."
(I only regard it as *a* missing link, absolutely not the last or only
missing link.) And this is but one of many misrepresentations in that
"review" and elsewhere. Here in JoM-EMIT, we have the matter of "laws of
combination and permutation," etc. that we have already discussed. Again, I
will be sending in a commentary on your "review" for publication in JASSS.
(Incidentally, I recommend that others NOT read your "review" until my
commentary on it is online as well, due the abundance of false information
in your "review.") What matters in the present context is that you have
been demonstrating a pattern of seriously inaccurate scholarship.
Therefore, I do not see the benefit of giving you a special admission to
day 2 of the conference for with the result that you will publish your spin
on it, along with possible further misrepresentations. If everyone else
were also admitted to day 2 of the conference, then there would at least be
a further safeguard against misrepresentations. So if Bob wants to open day
2 to *everyone* including you, then that is fine. But as long as others are
excluded, I do not see the benefit to giving a special waiver to you. To do
so would give you a special opportunity to misrepresent the proceedings.
Hopefully, you will take steps to repair your scholarly reputation in time
for future conferences.
--Aaron Lynch
http://www.mcs.net/~aaron/thoughtcontagion.html
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