Tim, you raise some good points, but it's not clear to me that this list is
at the "ready to convert newcomers" stage, or even if it wants to be. I
think what Virus is at the moment is a loose gathering of people with an
interest in memetics and memetic vehicles such as religion. Given the wide
range of opinions on this list, we're not ready to offer an "outreach
program" -- there doesn't seem to be a lot of agreement on what sorts of
memes we want to spread, after all! If and when we get to that stage, our
conversion tactics will no doubt have to be greatly improved, as you describe.
>generally). They understand that people are more likely to adopt ideas that
>come from someone like them (homophily)...
Agreed. But how similar is our Morman friend to us? I would wager that
most of members of this list are, despite differing opinions, more similar
to each other on average than they are to him. So even a good effort at
conversion would likely have failed. Virus has much better luck
"converting" those who are undecided about religion, who question their
beliefs, etc. That's our homophily.
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Ken Kittlitz ken@audesi.com
AudeSi Technologies Inc. http://www.lucifer.com/~ken
http://www.audesi.com