For some time now, we've all seen cars with little metal fish screwed into the rear end where the model and dealership's name sometimes are. Most people know that the fish is a symbol of Jesus Christ, whose name is often spelled out in Greek inside the fish. It's a way of spreading the evangelistic Christian meme complex.

Evangelism is an essential component of a virus of the mind. If a religion does not evangelize - contain as part of its teaching that it is important to "save," "convert," or "pass the favor on" - then it is at a severe disadvantage when competing with other belief systems for a share of people's minds. The fish on the back of the car is but a small means of taking the message into the age of advertising. Televangelists have done a much more effective job at the same thing, consistently increasing their "market share" at a time when most religions see their membership ("memebership"?) dwindling.

More recently, there's been a new fish in the sea of cars: a little fish with legs growing out of its bottom. Inscribed inside the fish, in place of the Greek "Jesus," is the word "Darwin."

I laughed the first time I saw this, but then started to think. Have scientific-minded folk finally figured out what is one of the main point in my book Virus of the Mind: that it's evangelize or be evangelized, meme or be memed? Did this Darwinian fish disseminate from the Simonyi Chair at Oxford held by Richard Dawkins, his mission to popularize science by peppering it with good memes? If not, it's the kind of thing that should be done.

Most people's experience of science is a boring high-school class with impenetrable textbooks and difficult exams. If scientific ideas could be as fun as astrology, and be as good ice-breakers at parties, we'd be on our way. I myself have begun to ask "what's your blood type?" instead of "what's your sign?" and launch into an informal research project along the lines of Peter D'Adamo's ideas about diet and blood type.

Meanwhile, though, the fish wars continue. Last seen was an escalation on the Christian side: A big Jesus fish, mouth gaping, about to swallow the little Darwin fish. Heh heh. But it's sad that religion versus science has to be seen as a competition. The purpose of religion is to guide us in living meaningful, fulfilling lives. Science should complement that, not compete with it. Much of the fuss is about conflicts between scientific theories of the past and religious creation myths. These are not the most important things to be thinking about anyway. What kind of future do we want to create? How will we accomplish it? When I met in San Francisco recently with many other concerned individuals from around the globe at the State of the World Forum, we addressed these issues. They are big, almost imponderable issues, but thinking about them is a step in the right direction.

Final fish note: not to be left out, the Jews have gotten into the act. The other day I saw a fish with a Star of David. Inscribed was one pithy word :Gefilte.

Meme Central - Richard Brodie's memetics Web site. "Memes are the invisible DNA of human society, controlling all aspects of mind and culture." Includes the Meme Links, a well-annotated listing of related sites, and information for subscribing to the free Meme Update newsletter, from which came this essay.

Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission - this new online journal provides full access to articles that offer a general overview of memetics, as well as to those describing the latest research in the field. Its managing editor is Hans-Cees Speel, one of the first scientists to devote his research to the study of memetics.

Memetics - a Principia Cybernetica Project page tackling age-old philosophical questions with the help of the most recent cybernetic theories and technologies. This very complete article provides an in-depth and well-referenced description of memes. There is also a long list of links on evolutionary theory and memetics.

Memetics Publications on the Web - is just that; they are listed in alphabetical order by author and include brief excerpts.