Memetics compendium

As part of the "military memetics" project, Dr. Robert Finkelstein has apparently used some of the dollars the department of defense sent his way to compile a huge body of existing scientific papers on memetics into an enormous volume, and publish it "for free" on the internet - in the form of the Memetics Compendium.

It runs to 14Mb - and 1680 pages!!!

The release notes say:

The basic purpose of the Compendium is to provide an indication of the prospective value of memetics to the U.S. military for conventional and asymmetric operations, including counter-terrorism.

Whoah! The next time someone tells me memetics isn't a science - and hasn't produced anything of value - I think I'll tell them to go and read the Memetics Compendium - and to tell me that again when they have finished it.

The Compendium apparently pays scant attention to international copyright law. For instance it has the entire text of chapter 11 of The Selfish Gene.

So - it may not stay up forever - but for the moment, you can download your copy now!