FAQ

alt.memetics

Memetics is the theory of cultural replicators, based on Daniel Dennett's philosophy-of-mind and the sociobiology of Richard Dawkins. Memetics postulates the meme as the fundamental replicating unit in social evolution, a process which is treated as technically equivalent to biological (genetic) evolution.
This concept is discussed in the alt.memetics newsgroup.

• "What is a meme?" Informal definitions
• Memetics on the Internet. On-line available articles, web-pages.
• Bibliography assembled by the newsgroup
• alt.memetics archives. Selected threads July 1994 - June 1995.

Introductions

• Francis Heylighen: Memetics (Principia Cybernetica Web)
• James Tilton: Memes, Catchphrase of a New Generation!
• Glenn Grant: Memes: Introduction
• Peter Vajk: Memetics: the nascent science of ideas and their transmission

On-line texts

• David Brin: The New Meme
• Luc Claeys: Behavior of Information
• Richard Dawkins: Viruses of the Mind
• Mike Godwin: Meme, Counter-meme
• Ron Hale-Evans: Memetics: A Systems Metabiology
• Joe Formoso: Memes, and Grinning Idiot Press
• H. Keith Henson: Memes, Metamemes and Politics
• H. Keith Henson and Arel Lucas: Cryonics, religions and memetics: A Theoretical Understanding
• Francis Heylighen: 'Selfish' Memes and the Evolution of Cooperation
• Les Jones: Good Times Virus Hoax FAQ
• Joshua S. Lateiner: Of Man, Mind, and Machine
• Elan Moritz: Memetic Science: I - General Introduction
• Heith Michael Rezabek: Autologue: Interdisciplinary Dialogue within the Global Network Environment
• Heith Michael Rezabek: Tutorial: Applied Memetics
• Shawn P. Wilbur: Running Down the Meme: Cyberpunk, alt.cyberpunk, and the Panic of '93
• Hans-Cees Speel : Memetics: On a conceptual framework for cultural evolution

Web pages

• Yahoo: Memetics
• KMO: The C Memetic Nexus
• Sputnik: Meme theorists on the web
• baBs777: Meme of the Week
• Richard Brodie: Meme Central
• Onar Åm: The Origins of Knowledge
• Eric Watt Forste: Arkuat's Meme Workshop
• Douglas Rushkoff: Media Virus
• Anders Sandberg: Memetics page
• Cosma Rohilla Shalizi: Memes
• Hans-Cees Speel: Some pointers and a short introduction to memetics
• Zhahai Stewart: Meme gardening page
• Marius Watz: Memetics
• Ken Kitowski: Memetics Index

Misc. sources

• Recent changes/additions to the Principia Cybernetica Web
• Self-organizing systems
• Meme-gusts (Mailing list)
• Seeker1's CyberAnthropology page
• FringeWare
• The Church of Virus sponsors a mailing list that offers high signal-to-noise ratio discussion of memetics.

June 1995

• Can memetics become a science? (7 articles)
• Selfishness (7 articles)
• Onar's cow problem (unsorted)

May 1995

• Fire walk with me! (5 articles)
• How memes are alive (8 articles)

April 1995

• Evolution of culture (3 articles)
• Behaviorist memetics (15+3 articles)
• Dominator culture (selection)
• Mirroring (6 articles)

March 1995

• The 'virus' metaphor (8 articles)
• Religion (14 articles)
• Sociobiology debate (4 articles)
• Brainwashing without force (8 articles)
• Cybervirus essay (2 articles)
• No meme? (4 articles)

February 1995

• Meme power (5 articles)
• The death of a meme (12 articles)
• Selfish memes of power (5 articles)
• Anti-Neutopian memes (5 articles)

January 1995

• Memetic meltdown (6 articles)
• Joke vs. pun (2 articles)
• 'Just testing' (4 articles)
• Psychological parasites (9 articles)

December 1994

• E-mail virus (5 articles)
• Swastika memes (7 articles)
• Endorphemes (3 articles)
• Metaphors for the masses (4 articles)

November 1994

• Histamemes (5 articles)

October 1994

• Self-fulfilling Prophecy (2 articles)
• Is this a meme? (7 articles)
• Puppet Masters (5 articles)
• Confused (6 articles)

September 1994

• Shock + Iconography (2 articles)
• Urban Legends (2 articles)
• If the Human Mind was Freed of Thought Viruses (2 articles)
• Territoriality and Me!-Me!-Me!-metics (5 articles)
• Memetics as a personal philosophy (3 articles)
• Memes and concepts (11 articles)

August 1994

• Internet Chain Letter--Epitomized Meme? (2 articles)
• When is a meme not a meme? (6 articles)

July 1994

• Music and Memetic Biasing Levels (5 articles)
• What is the most irresistible meme? (9 articles)
• Coffee memes (3 articles)
• Subliminal memes (6 articles)
• Memetic 'hide-and-seek' (8 articles)