Re: MEMETICS: Memetic engineering
Alexander Chislenko (alexc@firefly.net)
Tue, 31 Dec 1996 16:25:01 -0500
In ACF, the usual task of recommending ideas to people who may like them
can be easily substituted for recommending people to the ideas; this would
be a way for propagating advertisements. The meme launching agency can also
specify that the meme be shared not only with people who may like it, but
those who like it *and* fall within certain demographic domain (e.g.,
teenagers may like some luxury/adult ads, but are unlikely to pay for
the services - so it makes sense to spend advertising money elsewhere).
If you have no idea who may like your ad, you may launch a self-targeting
ad: show it do a diverse sample of the population, and then only to those
people with characteristics similar to the ones of people who liked your ad.
The precision of targeting here would be limited by the amount of data
known about the user, and the quality of the algorithms. If the advertisement
is truthful and well-meant (big IFs, I agree), greater precision should
be beneficial for both sides. If not, it can deliver highly targeted
propaganda to the most vulnerable/susceptible audience.
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