Phactum sampling

PhACT is Introduced to Memetics

-- by Eric Krieg

PhACT member, and former cult member, Fred Mitchell has long been fascinated by the causes of irrational thinking. He became interested in the new science of memetics and arranged for memetics advocate Aaron Lynch to speak to PhACT on February 21.

Aaron has degrees in physics, mathematics, and philosophy, but he credits zoologist Richard Dawkins with coining the term "meme" (hence "memetics") for ideas which can be considered as replicating entities in their own right. They are named by analogy with the genes which reproduce plants and other living matter.

Aaron Lynch has taken the idea of "memes" (rhymes with "dreams") still further. He says we used to ask, "Why do people believe that idea?" With the new perspective we now ask the question, "Why does that idea survive and reproduce?" or "How does the idea acquire people?"

This concept can be used to track the spread of both useful and parasitic ideas, idea "organisms" and idea "viruses". It used to be thought that people held ideas because of their truth or their value to the adherents. However, some ideas merely reproduce, giving no benefit to the host. They take on a less benign life as information viruses -- such as Hitler's belief that the Aryan race is superior and that virtually all other races must be eradicated.

A less cataclysmic example given during the lecture was the belief that one must have an astrologically compatible partner -- a notion that tends to replicate itself. It does so by manipulating hosts to raise the subject of astrological compatibility with numerous potential partners in order to find one of the right sign. When people pick up others in a bar with the tired line, "Hey, what's your sign?" you can appreciate that this is a sexually transmitted belief. It resembles a paperless chain letter, and actually causes damage because the host cuts him or her self off from a broader range of potential mates.

A believer in anything usually tries to get others to believe the same way out of good intentions. But remember the road to hell is paved with them. For example, Aaron takes a dim view of fad diets, explaining that the bad ones tend to replicate like a virus. A good diet would leave one slender for a long period of time but a string of bad, quick weight-loss diets get you more attention. Potential dieters notice a sudden thinning and decide to follow suit before they notice the weight coming back.

There is perhaps no culture in America more successful at perpetuating its memes than the Amish, a culture which survives as a striking anachronism in the age of technology. Aaron explains the primary value of the Amish meme "don't use automated farm equipment" as a method of making sure that not only the ideas, but the people who carry them, proliferate. Lower farm productivity means having to produce more children as helpers. They in turn are infused with the meme.

Ironically, in view of January's talk on Roswell, Aaron spoke on why a rumor such as the "Roswell meme" takes the form of a virus. Those infected enjoy having listeners in rapt attention as they spin the exciting yarn. They retell the story more often than would anyone retelling the mundane truth. The meme is spread more quickly when picked up by book writers motivated by the hope of making money.

Natural selection got around the setback of the "crash" being exposed as a spy balloon. A mutation of the idea, bearing an appended conspiracy theory meme, breathed new life into the contagion by making it resistant to refutation. Refutation resistant memes emerge for much the same reasons that bring us antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. Now, even our youngest, most idealistic skeptics expect the Roswell meme to outlive them.

Memetics includes complex mathematical formulas which can model belief propagation. The predictive value of memetics seems to place it in the realm of science rather than just an opinion. However, memetics is still in the process of being accepted as a science.

Aaron mentioned that the meme, "people who do not believe the primary meme must be persecuted," can make a meme particularly virulent. This is analogous to the insidious way the AIDS virus attacks the body's immune system. The tens of millions destroyed by the Nazism and Communism memes are a stark reminder of the high stakes associated with competing beliefs.

Naturally, Aaron feels a great sense of kinship with skeptics since they also promote critical thinking. The spread of disease was greatly slowed more than 100 years ago. The microbial contagion model was accepted and the passing on of contagions was avoided. Likewise, (ignoring cynicism), memetics offers us hope. A person enlightened (ok, Aaron, "inoculated") with the memetics meme is far less susceptible to harmful infectious ideas. Ideally one's natural "intellectual immune system" would nip thought contagions in the bud.

This reviewer has found it far more difficult to convert people deeply infected with nonsense than to dissuade those merely considering nonsense. As with so many tenacious microbes, an ounce of prevention (meme inoculation) seems well worth the proverbial pound of cure.

Arron Lynch has a more thorough write up of his talk at: http://www.thoughtcontagion.com/mamd.htm" and http://www.year2000.com/y2kcurrent2.html