Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19991226183631.011007a0@popmail.mcs.net>
Date: Sun, 26 Dec 1999 18:36:31 -0600
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net>
Subject: Web pages and affiliations
In-Reply-To: <19991225164104.28284.qmail@www0s.netaddress.usa.net>
I do not wish to get into new listserver disputes, such as those that may
be unfamiliar to new subscribers. Nor do I wish to unknowingly re-engage
certain individuals with whom past efforts at efficient productive
discourse have failed by way of proxies or aliases.
Anyone interested in knowing about the thoughtcontagion.com site or my
status as an idependant researcher can read the disclaimer added to the
bottom of the page:
"About thoughtcontagion.com and its registration: thoughtcontagion.com is
not a publicly traded company, nor even a private partnership. Rather, it
is a domain name registered by independent researcher Aaron Lynch,
corresponding only to a web domain maintained from his home office. For
purposes of registration, a company name was supplied on the electronic
registration form. Neither thoughtcontagion.com nor any of its registration
information should presently be construed as representing an official
academic institution, an academic department, or a university facility, a
group of companies, or other large-scale entity. It is operated entirely
through a home office. Neither the domain name, or any of its registration
information are currently authorized for use as institutional affiliations.
As noted in the 1999 newsletter, the domain name was originally created in
1998 as "a more memorable web address" for use in media interviews.
thoughtcontagion.com and the papers it lists are also used as sources of
further reading within various articles and lectures."
Long-time readers of Susan Blackmore's memetics work may know that her
affiliation was once listed prominently on the list of JoM-EMIT editors as
"Meme Lab, University of the West of England." The affiliation listing was
modified in early 1998, and is presently consistent with the affiliation
listed on her 1999 book. I trust that she and most of the rest of us are
happy with the change, and with the fact that the old affiliation once
listed on the JoM-EMIT editors' page was not copied onto her book.
Long-time readers of the Journal of Ideas should know that my comments
regarding Elan Moritz's reasons for ceasing publication of new issues of
the journal and for suspending operations of its associated IMR were based
on communications I had with him in the early 1990s, and the reasons he
gave then for what is now called hibernation. No conclusions may be drawn
from that regarding whether I myself have been presented with similar
trade-offs between family life and science done outside of the academic
establishment. If Elan had not told of the conflict he faced years ago, I
would not have discussed it. Moreover, if I had gotten the impression in
the early 1990s that his decision to handle the demands of a full-time
non-memetics job in support of his family were to be considered
confidential, I would likewise not have discussed it publicly--provided
that treating the matter with confidence did not somehow mislead people
about memetics as a profession or as a science.
--Aaron Lynch
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