> "Craig Presson" <dhr@iname.com> writes:
>
> > Steve: "Suppose there were ideas that were like viruses, so that once
> > you hear them, they take over your mental processes and you can't
> > stop thinking of them?"
> > Me: "I think there are plenty of ideas like that."
> > Steve (conspiratorial whisper): "Right! And further suppose that the
> > idea of a mental virus was one such ..."
>
> Given how well the meme of memetics spreads, he seems to have been
> quite right.
>
> > ... and find a new set of much more efficient parasite programs running
> > around "up" there ... <evil grin>. This says I should definitely keep
> > working on data security, I'll always have work! Just imagine the
> > disaster recovery plan for a Jupiter brain ...
>
> Yes, I would be surprised if there were no cognitive parasites or
> selfish replicators even among uploads; it is a big ecological niche
> where there are already prototypes.
>
Just read a great SF novel called Kaleidoscope Century, by either John or
Stephen Barnes. He really went nuts with memetic warfare, even developing an
era in the next century which he calls the Meme Wars, in which 7 or 8 memes
are the controlling intelligences of the populace, and are engaged in warfare
with each other, using people as their proxies.