The seminal moments of Memespace

Originally posted on May 28, 2000

I was working at the Treasury Dept. as a Webmaster.

I have wanted to work for Meta Design Group/TMN for ever but they could never afford me.

I got wind that they were getting investors and becomming a real company.

I got the job at the same salary I was getting at Treas and still had to wait a couple months so that I could have my knee surgery.

Scott allowed me to set up a Linux box in the Caucus Server room, install a copy of Caucus, the software, and hack it to the way I like it.

It started slow - but Scott had an ulterior motive, which was to teach me the ropes without Caucus having to pay me.

I had my dream: my own copy of Caucus and my own Server -- what to name it?

I said to myself:

"Self, what do you want to learn about and discover and talk about and discuss more than anything?"

Well, I just happened to go in to visit Michelle when she was working at the DC Public Library and coicidentally there was a copy of Brodie's book on Memetics and so I sat down and read it and although I believed it to be a little remedial for me, I could see the audience and I loved the ideas and it reminded me of the Lexicon I had seen on TMN in 1993, I said:

"Wow, this could actually be a topic that could encompass the various things I am interested in: Brainwashing, the PSI, the concept of self and other, the power of the word, the suggestion, NLP, Memetics, religion, the arcane, popular culture, commerce, capitalism, communism, socialism, the press.... everything exists as the result of a lot of people collaborating and accepting it.

Concensus reality and all that. Whether on a brain science methodology or using a new age/ Eastern Religion concept of the Other, the Self, the energy and Aural contagions that follow every word and intent.

But, to boil it down, I wanted to have a free conference that was pretty rigorous to replace my addiction to tmn.com and the virtual community I had since 1993 when I became a member.

Since it was free and easy to join and enjoy, I wanted to make the content a little challenging so that by virtue of the small community of people who even KNOW what a meme is, we would be starting with a collection of bright people -- and we have been able to do that... the restriction is not monetary but is most certainly a little to braniac for some people who just want some virtual nookie.

And memetics allow me to focus on ANYTHING from the Loins to Pop to Spirit to Fuck to Cluetrain to Tube and Mind and Body -- and all the other things -- such as Para and the soon to be started PSI.

I don't know -- it all started very slowly and it still feels slow and although there are almost 600 memebers, most lurk and trat this like it were the the Post and I think it is self-supporting and all my administrators are donating their valuable time (self-sustaining) and the HW is cheap and the OS is free and the Caucus is loaned.

I don't know how things are unfolding, but I have noticed that seeding works and reacting is bad and that all conversations come back to the meme -- even ones in Fuck that were dodgy at best -- a lot of bright folks are here and I have seen them realise that all these broad and divergent topics really do have a realtionship -- and all direct -- to Memetics and the way ideas either spread or die. And are never dead but can be rekindled.