Still A Skeptic

One reader expressed "mild horror" at the new site, concerned I "converted" (to religious faith) -- I haven't.
I'm still a skeptic, still an atheist.

But requiring atheism for memetics is a high-cost entry-point.  It restricts memetic theory with ideology, leads many to dismiss it as pseudo-science and creates a stillborn discipline.  This is why the new site emphasizes collaboration across philosophical backgrounds.

Embracing creative, irrational thought can at times be profitable -- it returns more on investment than the dividends of critical thought alone. 

Why not leverage that energy?  Afraid reason can't prevail?

Memetics 1.0 (the memetics of the early 2000s) dismissed religion as a pathogen, unworthy of complex investigation.  It dehumanized religious practitioners -- and it rightly floundered.

When a Jesuit says, "the exercises of Lyola (the founder) helped me fall in love with Jesus" -- why not investigate?  How did this text and community spin-up a Jesus-simulation in the Jesuit's mind? What is the biological scaffold that enables someone to fall in love with a simulation?  How did the human mind evolve the capacity to run personality simulations?

These are questions Religious Studies professors, Psychologists and Sociologists ask (even if they don't couch the question in Computer Science terms).  This is a question many seasoned Jesuits have asked themselves.  Why dismiss reflections and insights and bodies of data....because it doesn't comport with your idea of "rational analysis"?

It is your job to apply rational analysis to complex data sets!

A Question of Strategy

Past posts had sensational titles like, "Aliens Built the Pyramids" to draw readers in and generate buzz.

However, this had the side-effect of turning off other readers who didn't read any further and dismissed the blog as "woo-woo".   = )

What is the best strategy for long-term success?

To build momentum, should the new blog toe a "professional" line or are some stunts acceptable (with maybe an explanation, a footnote....)?

Please comment below.  Guidance is welcome.

Introducing Memetics 2.0

Hello readers,

After several quiet months, the new website is up and running.

(Interested in the new site's goals?  Check out our vision here.) 

The new layout and tone is designed to break memetics out of the ideological strangle-hold (which nearly killed it in the early 2000s) and introduce memetics to people across the globe.

Please take a look and let us know what you think.  Your collaboration & critiques are vital to move this science forward.