[Please note -- as M. points out, "mimetic allure" is a whole other story, which this entry does not address. :P]

An epiphany struck the other day which explains my history of falling in love (intellectually or otherwise) with librarians. [Fortunately, the last time that happened, it worked out pretty well, but that's another other story.]

Anyone who's read Dawkins' The Selfish Gene [1] will be familiar with the concept of a meme [2]. In his formulation, much like living creatures are life support systems for genes, something very similar pertains for life support of ideas in the form of memes. The concept of a meme is a successful enough meme in its own right that there must be something to it, wikipedia dispute [3] notwithstanding.

So if you accept, for the purposes of this oddly titled weblog entry, that sexual allure is an adaptive trait for gene survival, then it's easy to imagine how intellectual allure -- independent of its benefits for gene survival -- is an adaptive trait for meme survival. Put simply, whereas sexual allure leads you to want to be with someone who might help you to make babies (I know, but just work with me here...), memetic allure leads you to want to be with someone who might help you to propagate *ideas*.

C. -- one of the most memetically alluring people I've ever met -- speaks at times of "intellectual crushes". It's such an apt term. It usefully delineates how a crush can be very real and stand on its own independent of (or be heightened upon combining with) what we typically think of when someone says "crush". Or "fangirl [4]", or "fanboy [5]". And how it can be a healthy, nonscandalous, nonridiculous, normal thing.

After all, what parent doesn't want to hear that first phone call from a grown child that they're "going to be a GrandMeme!" Who doesn't want to be the one who COinS [6] a new acronym, or turns a new phrase, or writes a hit single, or proves a theory?

I sure as shootin' do. But I'm not usually that lucky. So, in the meantime, if you're like me, you're also easily drawn to the memetically alluring. If nothing else, it's because the second best thing to being The One Who ... is being there with The One Who ... when They First ...ed. Or when He Gave That Talk or She Released That Clever Bugfix or whathaveyou.

In general, though, few of us are ever quite that close to the Big Bang of a new meme, the Zero Day mindhacks, either. Instead, what we more often get are the more pedestrian brainshifts that sometimes occur for no apparent reason, but follow certain patterns -- being frustrated by a bug only to find the obvious answer immediately upon simply explaining it to a cubewallmate, say, or when following the excellent logic of an accomplished lecturer. When you recognize these patterns, you're bound often to recognize that there's a particular person in the middle -- a workmate, a favorite prof, or a blogger [7], and you're going to want to spend more time with or near that person.

Ultimately, who is more memetically alluring than a librarian? In many ways, propagating memes *is* the work of the librarian. It's why we're here and what we do. The library itself is a memetic meat market. Some comic has "seven simple rules for dating his daughter?" Well, let me show you our Collection Development Policy. It basically works the same way.

If you're lucky enough to find both memetic and other forms of allure emanating from the same person, well, good for you.

Now: who's feeling lucky?