20 January 2005

The Lifecycle of Memes

Found this very informative paper - The Lifecycle of Memes - written by Henrik Bjarneskans, Bjarne Grønnevik and Anders Sandberg. They have analyzed three well-known memes to examine their lifecycle.

They say that a meme has to complete a cycle again and again - and that it will die if it is unable to complete the cycle.

But... this was the best part...

"Before our paper ends, we will inform you of our until now secret sub-goal with this paper. It is our intention that by now you, by reading this text, has been infected with one of the strongest memes on the planet: The Meta-Meme, e.g. the meme about the theory of memes. It is our sincere hope that you will tell your friends about this (yes, transmission and further infection) or maybe even let them read this paper. In either case, unless you carry a very strong vaccime (se appendix), we have made you a host. And you didn't even flinch. You should be lucky we are not after your money..."

So, I decided to help them perpetuate it.




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