Wow, a visit from the prophet! :)
> This is my first post here; I've just recently discovered the CoV, and I
> must say I'm rather "chuffed", as the Brits say. I was doing the
I'm not familiar with "chuffed". Is it good or bad to be chuffed?
> I first came across memetics in Douglas Hofstadter's _Metamagical Themas_
> in 1985. For a long while the concept just percolated in my head,
I believe I was infected by the same vector, only a few years later.
Hofstadter led to Dennett and Dawkins, which led indirectly to grad
studies, Objectivism, Principia Cybernetica, the Extropians and eventually
the formation of the Church of Virus which hit the internet almost
exactly two years ago.
> A VIRUS 23 reader in Calgary was actually inspired to organize a
> "recombinant academic conference, Pagan ritual, rave dance club and
> post-cyberpunk science fiction convention" called MEMETICON '92 (to
which,
> oddly, I was not invited). The Lexicon was reprinted yet again in the
> program book. This was getting just too weird...
I went to Memeticon '92. For better or worse, you didn't miss much.
> I finally acquired a modem in 1994 and started Websurfing. Imagine my
> amazement when I discovered that someone had done an html version of the
> Lexicon and posted it on the Principia Cybernetica Web in Germany! Geez,
> the thing was still actively spreading itself. And now I find the CoV and
> other such sites, not only linking to the Lexicon but hosting mirrors of
> it, and expanding on it in mailing lists like this one. Wow.
I believe the CoV hosts the most recently updated edition of the
lexicon. You are welcome to reclaim your legacy and take over as
Keeper of the Word if you wish.
> Enough about me and my hopeful monster. I look forward to participating
in
> your weird and Dougly list. ["Dougly", BTW, is the invention of Ron
> Hale-Evans in his old neurozine, Singularity; it means "Similar to, or in
> the mode of, Douglas Hofstadter."]
So my list is "Dougly". High praise indeed!
-- David McFadzean david@lucifer.com Memetic Engineer http://www.lucifer.com/~david/ Church of Virus http://www.lucifer.com/virus/