Aaron Lynch (born 1957). American writer, best known for his book Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads Through Society. After obtaining masters degrees in mathematics and philosophy from the University of Illinois, Lynch became interested in the work of anthropologist F.W. Cloak, and considered doctoral studies in social sciences. However, observing the problems Cloak had obtaining tenure, and acceptance for his ideas, Lynch decided against an academic career and went to work as an engineering physicist at Fermilab. In his spare time, he developed his theory of thought contagion, influenced by Cloak and somewhat similar to the memetics approach to cultural evolution originally proposed by Richard Dawkins, although Lynch was not aware of such work by Dawkins and other writers until his own theory was fully developed. In the early 1990s, he had contributed to the Journal of Ideas, the first scholarly journal dedicated to memetics, and his work had previously come to the attention of Douglas Hofstader, who featured it in his Scientific American column Metamagical Themas in 1983. A grant from a former colleague who had become an Internet millionaire enabled Lynch to leave Fermilab in 1990 and concentrate full-time on writing. Fermilab Robert Rathbun Wilson Hall Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located in Batavia near Chicago, Illinois, is a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics, operated for the Department of Energy by the Universities Research Association (URA). ... Memetics is the scientific approach to evolutionary models of information transfer based on the concept of the meme. ... Cultural evolution is the structural change of a society and its values over time. ... Dawkins is the holder of the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Scientific American is one of the oldest and most serious popular-science magazines. ... Metamagical Themas is an eclectic collection of articles written for Scientific American during the early 1980s by Douglas Hofstadter, and published together as a book in 1985 by Basic Books (ISBN 0465045669) . The subject matter of the articles is loosely woven about themes in philosophy, creativity, artificial intelligence and important...

The first draft of Thought Contagion: How Belief Spreads Through Society, originally entitled Abstract Evolution was complete as early as 1984, and after a struggle to find a publisher willing to take on such an unconventional and challenging new work, it was eventually published, with considerable revision and addition, in 1996. Within a year, it had become a best seller, and established Lynch as the primary representative of the new memetics movement. In 1997, Lynch began work on a new book, Sexually Transmitted Belief, and started a website www.thoughtcontagion.com. However, the much anticipated second book has not appeared and www.thoughtcontagion.com was closed in late 2004. Memetics is the scientific approach to evolutionary models of information transfer based on the concept of the meme. ...