From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Wed Mar 31 1999 - 02:59:22 MST
Julian Leviston <julian@tcp.net.au> writes:
> What are memes? I've seen it a lot, so I recognise that it's probably a
> core issue with extropy.
Not really a core issue, but something extropians tend to speak much
about.
The word meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in _The Selfish Gene_ in
analogy to gene to denote a thought/idea that could spread from person
to person. A typical example would be a joke or rumor, but much more
complex memes like religions or extropianism are possible (these are
really large groups of cooperating memes). Memes are subjected to
evolution, and the whole idea of memetics is of course also a
meme. Now you're infected! :-)
Of course, this is a slightly controversial subject, since some people
think the meme concept is too wague or ill-defined to be useful, but
even when viewed as an analogy it can produce inspiring insights IMHO.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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