>The distinction is not as clear in the human brain, of course. As a
>result we
>have the tendency to try to expunge those memes we devalue completely.
>The
>most obvious way of removing their impact on the environment is to
>remove all
>copies of them. Thus vehicles of "heresy" get burned at the stake to
>remove
>the ideas they contain from the meme-sphere. The effectiveness of this
>strategy is debatable.
Why is it whenever the subject of "heresy" comes up, someone talks about
burning people at the stake? As memeticists, we should know that is a
lousy way to expunge a heretical meme. Much more effective ways are:
-ignore it
-ridicule/marginalize it
-threaten grave punishment for harboring it
The threat of being burned at the stake is what is effective, not the
burning itself.
A heresy is simply a belief that conflicts with church dogma. As a
church, we will naturally have heresies. What we do about them is
another matter: tolerate, subvert, or (most effective) put our own memes
on TV.
>Richard Brodie RBrodie@brodietech.com +1.206.688.8600
>CEO, Brodie Technology Group, Inc., Bellevue, WA USA
>http://members.gnn.com/rbrodie
>Do you know what a "meme" is? http://members.gnn.com/rbrodie/votm.htm
>
>