this alone doesn't necessarily qualify them as being memetic engineers. Few if any actually fall into this category. This is possibly due to a lack of understanding of the various memes that have taken root in their target audience minds. According to the definition, industrial designers, musicians, artists, athletes, and other entertainers would more likely better serve this definition. This is because of their ability to create products, phrases and ideas that disseminate the population triggering a response within the brain causing a cultural phenomena. Game theory provides an empirical means of advancing the science of memetics. Memetic game theory, attempts to mathematically capture behavior in strategic situations; where an individual's success in making choices depends on the choices of others, based on past experiences, emotional behavior and learned behavior. It also offers a scientific approach to analyzing social interactions. Examples An example of an engineered meme is Godwin's law, a meme which propagates on mail-lists, and which its author professes to have initiated to reduce spam on those lists; one version is "When someone posts a metaphor about Nazis the thread is no longer useful." Richard Pech discusses the concept of memetic engineering within the context of countering mind contagions associated with terrorism. School shootings, for example, may be explained as an attempt to demonstrate the ultimate form of rebellion against a system in which the perpetrators feel ostracised or isolated. Acts of violence might appeal to their egos and the means for achieving this is replicated via the shooting meme. To re-engineer such a meme and its ability to infest susceptible minds, all information concerning such violence must be portrayed in an unappealing manner. For example, no one wants to be associated with acts of cowardice. By strongly suggesting that such violence is cowardly and the work of disturbed minds, it has less appeal for replication. In this manner the shooting meme has been re-engineered by removing its attraction, and therefore removing its ability to replicate. Taiwan The Taiwanese government has installed memetic engineering teams in each government department which can respond within 60 minutes to disinformation efforts using a “humor over rumor” approach. These teams are used to counter Chinese political warfare efforts as well as domestic disinformation. See also Collective consciousness Diffusion of innovations Egregore Meme Memetics Memetic warfare Opinion leader Propaganda Self-replication References External links Disinfo - Alex Burns: Memetic Engineering (2001) Wired Magazine -