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This is Richard Brodie's Meme Central Newsletter. To
subscribe/unsubscribe, send mail to events@brodietech.com with
"subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in the message body. Visit Meme Central at
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm. Books mentioned here and
others are available through the Amazon.Com Memetics Bookstore at
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/books.htm. Start reading VIRUS OF THE
MIND on-line, for FREE, at http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/votm.htm.
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HAPPY NEW YEAR
I wish you and all your loved ones a prosperous and happy 1997! This
year, let's resolve to be even more conscious of the words we live by
and the words we say to others.
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BOOK REVIEW - fiction
Halperin, James L. The Truth Machine (Ballantine, 1996).
First-time author Jim Halperin knows how to spread memes. He first put
the entire text of this speculative novel on the Web as freeware, then
micropublished The Truth Machine himself in hardcover (doing an
excellent job, I must say) prior to Random House making his baby their
lead title for Fall '96. Now Warner Brothers has bought the movie
rights. What's the magic of this book?
For the memeticist, anything dealing with a fundamental change in the
way ideas are communicated is prime reading material. Halperin builds an
all-too-credible future around the premise of the invention of an
infallible lie detector. (Trenchantly, the Truth Machine's creator is
not just any inventor but the world's greatest computer programmer. It
stands to reason that such a device would be largely software. And it's
about time us programmers got something - we've had a hell of a time!)
Halperin's style reminds me of a cross between Heinlein and Crichton.
His main strength is the believability of the near-future setting,
complete with amusing "news bulletins" about future current events.
Neither plot nor characters are complex, but this is definitely a
can't-put-it-down novel, as the societal and personal forces set in
motion by the invention of the Truth Machine play out to their climax in
a Hellenic foreordainment.
You can order this book through the Amazon.Com Memetics Bookstore by
clicking here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=0345410564/memecentralA/
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EVENTS
Thu. February 13, 1997: Getting Past OK: a three-hour mini-workshop on
how to have a fantastic life! $29 plus $5 registration fee. Offered
through Discover U in Seattle. To register, call them at 206-443-0447.
Thu. February 27, 1997: Richard Brodie will be giving the keynote
address at the American Society for Quality Control convention in Los
Angeles.
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VIRUS OF THE MIND IN THIRD PRINTING
Wholesalers ran out of stock in a few areas over the holidays, but the
third printing of Virus of the Mind is now off the presses and should
shortly be available everywhere in the U.S. Thanks for spreading the
meme!
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All the best memes,
Richard
Richard Brodie RBrodie@brodietech.com +1.206.688.8600
CEO, Brodie Technology Group, Inc., Bellevue, WA, USA
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie
Do you know what a "meme" is?
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm