virus: Re: Machiavellian Memes

Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Wed, 13 May 1998 19:28:28 -0700


(On JoM) Aaron Lynch writes:

>>From a scientific standpoint, the main issue is not theological, but
>rather, the idea of doing memetics (or any science) by "revelation." In a
>world where all too many people regard memetics as "light-weight" at best
>and pseudoscience at worst, it is a suggestion not even to make in jest.

Speaking of making memetics a more "heavy-weight" science, what are your
thoughts on the possible merging of memetics and diffussion studies? This
seems like a natural pairing that might help produce some of the hard data
that memetics, on its own, is so sadly lacking.

(And BTW, I don't remember if it was here on JoM or on lucifer.com, but
whoever recommended Everett M. Rogers _Diffussion of Innovations_, thank
you! It is a wonderful complement to the study of memetics and points the
way to a better understanding of the manner and rates at which ideas
propigate through a culture.)

Is memetics a subset of diffusion studies? Or are they simply two joined
sets with a great deal of overlap?

-Tim Rhodes