Symposium on Memetics

EVOLUTIONARY MODELS OF INFORMATION TRANSMISSION

as part of the

15th International Congress on Cybernetics

NAMUR (Belgium), August 24-28, 1998

About the Symposium

The Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Infromation Transmission, in collaboration with the Principia Cybernetica Project, has decided to organize a first symposium on memetics. The aim of the journal is to integrate the different approaches inspired by memetics, and thus try to establish memetics as a recognized scientific field. The symposium similarly wishes to bring together all researchers working on memetics, in order to allow them to meet face to face, thus stimulating discussions and possible collaborations. The symposium is chaired by two members of the Journal's editorial board, Francis Heylighen and Mario Vaneechoutte. The emphasis will be on discussion, rather than on formal presentation.

Symposium Theme

In 1976, Dawkins invented the word 'meme,' in analogy with the word 'gene', defining it as 'a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation'. Thus, he defined the field of memetics, which studies the development and spread of culture and information, on the basis of the Darwinian principles of variation, reproduction and natural selection. Further information on memetics is available through the journal's web server:.

The initial description of 'meme' by Dawkins is rather vague, which is a possible reason for current diverging views on what a meme really is, and how the memetic model can be used. We are confronted with an avalanche of books, essays, and publications scattered over different journals and disciplines, with dialogue flashing up here and there in an unstructured manner. This chaos exists because a general framework is lacking.

The journal of memetics, and the symposium it organizes, aims to tackle this problem. We seek to discuss issues concerning memetics such as:

Mechanisms involved in evolutionary processes. Comparisons of different models of evolution are especially welcome.
Philosophical or theoretical issues concerning epistemology and evolution
Boundaries of the evolutionary approach
Empirical research
Fundamental approaches aiming at structuring the field of memetics as a science

Program

There is a detailed program with abstracts available, including links to most of thefull papers and a symposium report.

The following contributions were initially accepted for presentation:

BEST, Michael L.

Computational Culture and Population Memetics.

BOLLEN, Johan, Francis Heylighen, and Dirk van Rooy.

Improving Memetic Evolution in Hypertext and the WWW.

BOYD, Gary.

Should memes and viral-information be considered synonymous terms?

BRUYNSEELS, Koen, Johan Vos, and Pieter Vandekerckhove.

Noosphere: an On-line Implementation of a Memetic Evolution.

CLEWLEY, Robert.

Emergence without magic: the role of memetics in multi-scale models of evolution and behaviour.

DE JONG, Martin, and Hans-Cees Speel.

Mimicry behaviour in social and organisational life.

EVERS, John.

An explanation for general societal altruism consistent with Darwinian natural selection according to the memetic application of Hamilton's rule.

GABORA, Liane

Cognitive Autocatalysis: A Tentative Scenario for the Origin of Culture.

GIROUX, Hélène, François Cooren, and James R. Taylor.

Memes and the persistence of organizational structures.

GOPPOLD, Andreas.

The SEMsphere: The Peircean category of Thirdness as ontological place for the meme.

GREINER, Christine.

Memes and the creation of new patterns of movement in dance.

HALES, David.

Artificial Societies, Theory Building and Memetics.

HEYLIGHEN, Francis

What makes a meme successful? Selection criteria for cultural evolution

KATZ, Helena.

Dance and Evolution: a non-stop combination of biology and culture

MARSDEN, Paul.

Operationalising Memetics - Suicide, the Werther Effect, and the work of David P. Phillips.

MARSHALL, G.J.

The Internet and Memetics.

MASON, Kelby.

Thoughts as tools: the meme in Daniel Dennett's work.

Pitt, Richard.

[The history of monotheism]

Quinn, Thomas.

Bacterial Models of Memetic Transmission: Conjugation, Transduction, and Transformation.

RIBEIRO, Joaquim F.P., and Alex Lutkus

Real product design assisted by abstract evolution.

SAKURA, Osamu.

History of Sciences as a Division of Memetics? Implications from Comparative Studies on the Reception of Sociobiology.

SPEEL, Hans-Cees.

Memes are also interactors.

VANEECHOUTTE, Mario.

The replicator: a misnomer. Conceptual implications for genetics and memetics. In addition, the symposium will normally also include a panel discussion on memetics as a science, with all the Journal of Memetics editors present at the symposium: Boyd, Gabora, Heylighen, Speel and Vaneechoutte.

Publication of Papers

For accepted papers, the full text of the paper, which must not exceed 6 typed, single-spaced pages, is to be sent by postal mail to the congress secretariat before May 31, 1998.

All papers that are personally presented by the author at the congress will be published in the congress Proceedings. The authors of the best papers will be invited to publish an extended version in the Journal of Memetics. Researchers who cannot participate in the symposium are still invited to directly submit a full paper for publication in the Journal to the managing editor (see the information for authors).

About the Congress

The 15th International Congress on Cybernetics will be held from August 24 to 28, 1998, in Namur (Belgium) at the Institute for Computer Sciences (see "how to get to the institute") of the University of Namur. The International Congresses on Cybernetics are organized triannually (since 1956) by the International Association for Cybernetics (IAC). The interdisciplinary domain of cybernetics, which is closely related to memetics, addresses subjects such as information, communication, organization, intelligence, complex systems, and feedback loops.

Namur, Citadel

Namur is a quiet little city on the confluence of the Meuse and Sambre rivers, at the foot of a hill supporting the impressive medieval Citadel (see photo). Its charming old streets offer plenty of restaurants and cafes. It is situated at an hour's drive by car or train from Brussels, the capital of Belgium and of the European Union, at the border of the beautiful forested region of the Ardennes (see touristic information for Namur).

The congress atmosphere is relaxed and informal, with several symposia going on in parallel in adjacent rooms. Lunches can be taken at the "Arsenal" university restaurant, in a renovated medieval hall. The congress normally includes a congress dinner, an excursion, and a meeting room for coffee breaks. Participants are responsible for making their own hotel reservations, but good quality and inexpensive accomodation in students' rooms will be available. Info about accomodation, including a list of hotels , will be sent to all those who register at the congress secretariat. (see also: hotels in the Province of Namur)

The official languages of the Congress are English and French (the memetics symposium will be exclusively in English).

Congress Program Committee

ALGOUD Jean-Pierre (France), ANDONIAN Greg (Canada), ANDREEWSKY Evelyne (France), BERGER Rene (Switzerland), BETTA Jan (Poland), BOUCHON-MEUNIER Bernadette (France), BOURLARD Herve (France), BRIER Soren (Denmark), BUI Tung (USA), CARON Armand (France), DUBOIS Daniel (Belgium), FERRARI Domenico (Italy), FOMICHOV Vladimir (Russia), FRANCOIS Charles (Argentina), FRANK Helmar (Allemagne), HAKEN Hermann (Germany), HORNUNG Bernd (Germany), JDANKO Alexis (Israel), JEAN Roger (Canada), LASKER George (Canada), LASZLO Ervin (Italy), MARUYAMA Magoroh (Japan), MINNAJA Carlo (Italy), MORIN Edgar (France), NUNEZ E.A. (France), RAMAEKERS Jean (Belgium), SCHWARZ Eric (Switzerland), STEG Doreen (USA), STEWART J (U.K.), VALLEE Robert (France), WARBURTON Brian (U.K.).

Other Symposia (Preliminary Program)

Chairpersons:Topics

ANDONIAN Greg (Canada): Architectural Computing and Networking : Perspectives on Hi-Tech and Globalisation
ANDREEWSKY Evelyne (France) & NICOLLE Anne (France): Décision et Langage - la dialectique du savoir et du dire - Decision and Language; the Dialectic of Knowledge and Saying
BARANDOVSKA-FRANK Vera (Germany): Contributions de l'interlinguistique à la cybernétique de la communication humaine - Contributions of Interlinguistics to Human Communication Cybernetics
BETTA Jan (Poland): Génie des systèmes industriels : un champ nouveau d'applications de l'approche systémique - Engineering of Industrial Systems : a new Field of Applied Systemic Approach
BOUCHON-MEUNIER Bernadette (France): Fouille de données - Data Mining
BOYD Gary (Canada) & ZEMAN Vladimir (Canada): The Cybernetics of Rational and Liberative Education
BRIER Soren (Denmark): Cybernetics and Semiotics: How can they supplement each other in Life, Information and Social Sciences
CARON Armand (France): Les réseaux neuronaux, l'acquisition des connaissances et leurs traitements - Neural Networks, Knowledge acquisition and processing
DUBOIS Daniel (Belgium): General Methods for Systems Modeling and Control
FOMICHOV Vladimir (Russia): Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science and Philosophy for Social Progress
FRANK Helmar (Germany): Les media dits "modernes" en communication scientifique et didactique - So-called "Modern" Media in Scientific and Didactic Communication
HAZA-VANDENPEEREBOOM (USA): The Development of Artificial Entities: An Interdisciplinary Approach toward the Understanding of Self Contained Systems
JDANKO Alexis (Israel): Essence and History of Cybernetics
JEAN Roger (Canada): Biomathématique et/ou biologie théorique - Biomathematics and/or Theoretical Biology
LASKER George (Canada): Synergistic Effects of Local and Global Developments on our Lives and on our Future
MURPHY Dennis (Canada) & NARANJO Michel (France): L'image à travers les réseaux et l'éducation à la citoyenneté - The Image through Networks and Education to Citizenship
NUNEZ E.A. (France): Functional Analogies between Biological, Social and Technological Domains
POLAKOVA Eva (Slovak Republik): Prospects and possibilities of objective international studies of border disciplines in respect to anthropocybernetics
SCHWARZ Eric (Switzerland): Holistic Aspects of Systems Science
STEG Doreen (USA): Communication, Control and Organization in Complex Systems
WARBURTON Brian (U.K.): Information, Context, and Meaning

Registration Fees

The registration fee covers participation in the Congress, the preparatory documents, a reception, the coffee-breaks and the Proceedings for the authors.
Before April 30, 1998 After April 30, 1998

11 000 BEF 14 000 BEF

(about $295) (about $375)

Special conditions for young researchers under 30 years (on presentation of a certificate issued by their university) (does not include the Proceedings)

4 000 BEF 5 000 BEF

(1$ = about 37 BEF -see Belgian Franc exchange rates)

Payment can be made as follows :

to bank account nr 250-0077851-45 with the Generale de Banque
to giro account nr 000-0045356-57
by cheque or international money order made out to : Association Internationale de Cybernétique, Palais des Expositions, B-5000 Namur (Belgium).

Further Information

For further information about the scientific program of the memetics symposium contact the symposium chairs:

Mario Vaneechoutte (submissions)
Laboratory Bacteriology & Virology Blok A
De Pintelaan 185
University Hospital Ghent
9000 Ghent, Belgium
Phone +32-9-240 36 92
Fax +32-9-240 36 59
E-mail Mario.Vaneechoutte[ at ]rug.ac.be

Francis Heylighen
Center "Leo Apostel" Free University of Brussels
Pleinlaan 2 B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Phone +32-2-644 26 77
Fax +32-2-644 07 44

For registration, payment, or further information (accomodation, fees, etc.) about the congress, contact the congress secretariat, using the registration form below:

Congress Secretariat
International Association for Cybernetics
Palais des Expositions, avenue Sergent Vrithoff 2
B-5000 Namur, Belgium
Phone: +32-81-71 71 71
Fax: +32-81-71 71 00
Email: Cyb[ at ]info.fundp.ac.be or sri[ at ]bepn.namur.be (Carine Aigret)

Registration Form

(to be sent to the International Association for Cybernetics in Namur)

 15th Int. Congress on Cybernetics (Namur, 24-28 August, 1998)
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