Some things spread like wildfire across the blogs. But, can an artificial meme, designed specifically to measure the speed of its spreading, spread as fast? If we know its speed, can we know its position at the same time, and vice versa? You'll know the answer (pretty soon) if you link to this from your blog.
Perhaps it would be more useful to track the already existing and popular memes, like Beautiful Bird Meme, Random Quotes Meme, Silly Blog Meme, Four Meme, Zero Meme, Dirty Thirty Meme, States Meme, Obscure-But-Good-Movies Meme, Four Jobs Meme, The Blogging Blog Meme, Browser Meme, Seven Times Seven Meme or many, different, book, memes and compare those that include tagging the recepients to those that are free-for-all, those that are general to all bloggers to those that are specific to one particular corner of the blogosphere, as well as compare these "intelligently designed" memes to those that arise spontaneously when someone posts important piece of news or a cool picture.
Moreover, something like the experiment Acephalous is planning to do has already been done and you can watch the Memetree.
Also, the Academic Blog Meme was tracked as well.
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Coturnix,
It's interesting that although you have repeatedly identified Dawkins as obsolete and representing bad thinking you use the meme concept. Of course there were similar non-Dawkins concepts like culturgen and i-culture but the term "meme" turned out to be the fittest meme. And "meme" has been appropriated by the blogosphere and become part of its culture.
I am not a huge Dawkins partisan. I am somewhat amused to see him embraced as an advocate of all that is anti-fundie by the same kinds of circles that unfairly demonized him as some kind of ultra-reactionary a decade ago.
Like you, I accept multilevel selection and think there is great value in interactionist and developmentalist approaches. One way I differ is that I do not believe that Hamilton, Trivers, Williams et al. are theoretical deadwood to be scorned but a crucial part of a long-delayed Developmental Synthesis (to use Gilbert's term).
I also disagree with your assertions about the linkage between particular biological theories and politics. I think it's far more complicated than that. Reductionism, holism, interactionism, sociobiology, group selection etc. have all been associated with widely varying political views.
I use the word 'meme' ONLY to refer to "blog memes". As a term. Not a concept.
And I agree with most of the rest of what you say. Some things get too simplified in order to get into sharp, snarky blogposts designed to drive a point and provoke debate, and would not be written the same way for a real publication, e.g., a book.
NOT A MEME!!!!
goto encyclopediadramatica.com and 4chan.com for REAL memes.
observe:
Memes 404 Girl - Awesome - BIKECAT - Blockatiel - Borscht - Boxxy - Broccoli Dog - Bunny Pancake - Buzzkilling - Cactuar - Card Crusher - Carlton - Chris Hansen - Dicks everywhere - DOUBLE NIGGER - Doug - DSFARGEG - Garfield - ENGLISH MOTHERFUCKER - Facepalm - Frosted Butts - Gaijin 4Koma - Gentlemen - Gordon the Pringles Giraffe - Happy Snake - House - Hypnotoad - I am Legend - I GOT NORTON! - I'd Hit It - INVISIBLE... - IS IT CAN BE HUGS TIEM NOW PLEES? - Is This Battletoads - It's a Trap! - Jam It In - John Locke - KILL IT WITH FIRE - Law 4 Kids - Machine Code - Man The Harpoons - Mario Drawings - Milk Bags - MSPaint Relationship Thread - Nanomachines - OM NOM NOM NOM - Party Hard - PLEASE RESPOND - Pretty cool guy - Push Butan - Put Shoe On Head - Rape Clock - Shitting Dick Nipples - Slowpoke - Speedycat - Spengbab - Steel Hearts - Teh Rei - That Fucking Cat - delayclose.jpg - USB Cable - Vespene gas - Weegee - What is Love? - Why So Serious? - Wrong Location Nigger - X? In My Y? - YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG - Zippocat
360 kid - 4chan Battlecards - 4chan Gaming - 4chan Gold Account - Approval Guy - Audio - Beat A Rod - Because of Parkinson's - Child Abduction - BRB, CHURCH - brb, compromised - brb, soup - Brinks Home Security - Dental Plan - Dynamic Entry - Extreme Advertising - Feels good man - Fishing Cat - Flea Market Montgomery - #fortune - Ffruustration - Gary Oak - Godhand Edit - Goofy Time - Grin Reaper - Guess The Meme - Hi-tech military software - Holy Grail - HOW CAN SHE SLAP?!? - I DIDN'T EAT THAT FUCKIN SANDWICH OR THE TOILET THING EITHER! - I Has A Bucket - I need a price check ... - I TOUCHED HIS PENIS!! OMG - Josef Fritzl - JxcelDolghmQ - Time for a Dicking - Chocolate Rain - Large Hadron Collider - Leave Bond to me - LINK MAH BOIIIII - LOLCHAIR - Mavica Sprite - Michael Phelps - Mordor - Nod Flenders - Octocat - Oh No You Didn't - Operation Falcon Punch - Operation LIONCASH - Perfection Girl - Power Wrist - ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH - SFW Porn - Shamwow - Steve Irwin - Stingray - SUP DAWG - Swirl Face - Switch police on - Tapestry Dog - Tyrannosaurus Reich - Uninformed Lisa - VTEC Just Kicked In Yo - What is a man? - Why So Exploitable? - Woll Smoth - Zach Braff Quotes
Classics 4chan bans - 4chan Stencils - A Cat Is Fine Too - All Your Base Are Belong To Us - A winner is you - An Hero - Baby fuck - Barrel roll - Bayeux Tapestry - Bel-Air - Bitches Don't Know - Bix Nood - Brian Peppers - Bridget - Buy A Dog - Candlejack - Catnarok - Caturday - Ceiling Cat - Centipede filled vagina - Chin-chan - Chuck Norris - Cockmongler - Copypasta - Creepypasta - Delicious Cake - Demotivators - Desu - Diabeetus - Divide By Zero - DO IT FAGGOT - DO NOT WANT - Duckroll - Epic Fail Guy - Epic Threads - FGSFDS - F40PH - Gaijin 4Koma - George Zimmer - Goodnight Sweet Prince - HA! HA! Guy - HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKS - Happycat - Happy Negro - How Do I Shot Web? - I Am In Your Base Killing Your D00ds - I Came - I Has A Shuvel - IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZER - INTERNET HATE MACHINE - I See What You Did There - Oh god how did this get here I am not good with computer - Over 9000 - ITTY BITTY BABY ITTY BITTY BOAT - JESUS CHRIST IT'S A LION GET IN THE CAR! - LOL WUT - Longcat - Massimo D'Alema - Milhouse is not a meme - Moar - Mudkips - Nevada-tan - O RLY - Pedobear - ???? - Pool's Closed - Profit - Raptor Jesus - Rickroll - The Sandwich Chef - The Singing Shark - This Looks Shopped - TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL - Waha - WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY - Yaranaika - ZA WARUDO