I came across this in the last issue of Extropians-Digest. Considering
that it is a summary of a publically-available article, it should be
all right to cross-post:
From: Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se>
Subject: Re: Public Relations? (a memetic view)
> I recently read the paper "Cultural r/k Selection" by Agner Fog in
> Journal of Memetics
> (http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1997/vol1/fog_a.html).
>
> Fog suggests a memetic analogy to the r/K strategies in biology. An r
> strategy occurs when there are good opportunities for expansion but
> also considerable dangers (such as predators or natural hazards). Then
> it will be advantageous for a species to breed as fast as possible and
> spend little resources on each offspring. If the population is limited
> under scarce resources rather than predation, then a K strategy
> emerges where there are few offspring, but much resources are invested
> in them. Mice and insects follow r strategies, humans and other large
> mammals tend to follow K strategies.
>
> Fog then applies this to memetics, suggesting that the same strategies
> apply to memes. Memes that can quickly spread but also are in constant
> danger due to predation from other memes, unreliable vectors or
> attacks from opposing memes would follow a r strategy, something Fog
> calls a regal strategy. Regal memes tend to emphasize the importance
> of proselytization, defence of the memetic in-group and homogenity of
> belief - it is more important to spread the meme than [like] it. K
> strategies among memes (called kalyptic by Fog) appear when the meme
> cannot easily expand into other meme-pools and there [is] little danger
> for it. In this case it becomes more important to keep the hosts of
> the meme interested in it, so selection for positive effects of being
> infected will occur, there is little need for keeping the variants of
> the meme similar etc. Fog then goes on analysing cultures with this
> framework.
>
> Note the similarity between "movements" and regal strategies, and
> traditions/idea currents and kalyptic strategies. A movement seeks to
> expand its base, becoming more able to influence more people. They
> often seek to retain something of an ideological purity (which often
> results in them splintering into mutually competing sub-movements). An
> idea current has no real drive to expand, it spreads to hosts that can
> accept the meme and have little need for orthodoxy. If Fog's model is
> correct, then we should expect movements to appear in memetic niches
> where it is possible to gain many converts, but there is also plenty
> of opposition, and idea currents in memetic niches where it is not
> easy to gain new converts, but little opposition.
<remainder regarding "Extropian movements" snipped>
I figure that the term "kalyptic" comes from the muse Calypso in
Homer's _Odyssey_. They way in which she trapped and held Odysseus
through her song and love seems a good allegory for the way in which a
k-complex would operate.
This summary relates to what I was tying to get across with my elitism
suggestion some days back. In spite of Mr. Fog referring to
non-elitist complexes as regal (which I figure comes from the analogy
of conquering and ruling territory), the best historical application
of this type of memetic contagion that I know of is the spread of
Zoroastrianism in the Persian Empire, where it was restricted to the
nobility. In this way it served to reinforce the idea of conquest with
a "God is with the righteous" concept.
>From the standpoint above, CoV fits into the scenario proposed for a
k-strategy, not an r-strategy. There is no substantial threat to
memetics as far as I know, not in the public's eye -- it is usually
unknown or when known considered either wierd or overly mechanical,
but not actively opposed. There is also no "obvious" reason to
convert to a memetic point of view, as people generally consider their
lives to be getting along well enough without too much introspection
and analysis (what percentage of people browse through the science
section in Barnes & Noble, compared to the self-help books -- not to
mention the romances?). We find ourselves in a position akin to the
k-strategy environment: our memes cannot easily expand into other
meme-pools (hence the debate about the banner ad), there is little
active opposition to us, selection for positive effects of infection
is a general effect of debate on this list, and there is little need
for keeping the variants of the meme similar -- which the discussion
here actively works *against*.
This suggests that a widespread use of banner graphics or similar
advertisements may be counterproductive, *unless* they are restricted
to sites which target a specific type of host. Perhaps we could set up
(if possible with the systems we Virions have access to) a cookie-based
advertisement vector, working on how many times individuals visit
members' sites. The idea that I mentioned in an earlier post (ref.
"virus: neurological contagion and 'Virtual plague(tm)'") could be
applied here: when a person visits a certain number of times, or a
certain variety of sites, they would receive a notification of a
"Virtual Meme" or some such (the title would have to have some
advertising flair). They would then have to go to the CoV site to pick
it up -- probably not through the main page, but a subsidiary.
Getting people interested in visiting the sites in the first place
might be a problem, but by targeting the proper individuals we might
be able to work something out. One infection strategy I've been
flirting with is to set up a CoV remailer. This would target
portions of the cypherpunk/cryptorebel and privacy sectors, and many
of the individuals in those communities (especially the former)
already host meme-complexes that would be more succeptible to
contagion than those of the General Population(tm). It'll be a while
before I have the resources to do this, otherwise my pages wouldn't be
on Geocities... anyone have the available resources and interest?
Best regards,
Gairovald mailto:argos@DeathsDoor.com
"I have fun thinking, too. But we're atypical."
-- Michael Butler