Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19990706114153.0167c380@popmail.mcs.net>
Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 11:41:53 -0500
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net>
Subject: Re: Astrology
In-Reply-To: <ce482e5f.245b2fed@aol.com>
At 12:10 PM 4/30/99 EDT, Jake <MemeLab@aol.com> wrote:
>Quoting Aaron in regards to astrology:
>
>>>Resembling
> a paperless chain letter in some ways, the thought contagion also behaves in
> humans much as a computer virus behaves in computers. Though it does not
> erase its hosts’ memory, it can make it harder to find a partner deemed
> "compatible" by arbitrarily narrowing the field. So like a sexually
> transmitted microorganism, astrology ideas parasitize human mating for their
> own reproduction.<<
>
<snip>
At 07:23 PM 4/30/99 +1000, Chris Lofting wrote:
>Aaron's website has the following entry:
>
>"Brief Example: Consider the belief that you need to find a romantic partner
>of a "compatible" astrological sign. This notion causes singles who have it
>to raise the subject of astrological sign compatibility with each new
>potential partner, in order to determine compatibility. So the idea exploits
>human mating drives to get itself retransmitted. It is a "sexually
>transmitted belief," implicitly telling some hosts to send, in effect, 4 or
>12 copies of this idea to potential partners before accepting anyone for
>further dating. That includes people who are manipulated to retransmit even
>if spreading the word is not their specific motive for doing so. Resembling
>a paperless chain letter in some ways, the thought contagion also behaves in
>humans much as a computer virus behaves in computers. Though it does not
>erase its hosts’ memory, it can make it harder to find a partner deemed
>"compatible" by arbitrarily narrowing the field. So like a sexually
>transmitted microorganism, astrology ideas parasitize human mating for their
>own reproduction. This is not all that the new theory has to say about
>astrology, and astrology is not a special case. Similar analyses shed fresh
>light on a vast range of ancient religions and recent ideologies."
<snip>
Thanks, Jake and Chris. As this material has been quoted by both of you, I
give the citation (including date) as follows:
Lynch, A. 1997. "Thought Contagion Memetics."
http://www.mcs.net/~aaron/thoughtcontagion.html.
(The URL was in use as simply the web page for the book _Thought Contagion_
before 1997, but in 1997 I broadened the site's content, gave it the title
"Thought Contagion Memetics," and incorporated the "brief example" of
astrological compatibility memes exploiting human mating drives to get
themselves retransmitted.)
--Aaron Lynch
http://www.mcs.net/~aaron/thoughtcontagion.html
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