Lynch worked extensively on the theoretical underpinnings of idea self-replication, developing a symbolic language and deriving mathematics from epidemiologic formulae to describe idea transmission through populations. While conducting a literature search for his book, Lynch discovered the work of anthropologist F.T. Cloak on socially transmitted technology in birds, and a brief proposal for a field of Memetics in Richard Dawkins' book, "The Selfish Gene", although Lynch was not aware of these authors' work until after his own theory was substantially developed. Early chapters of his book came to the attention of Douglas Hofstadter, who featured it in his "Scientific American" column "Metamagical Themas" in 1983. The first draft of the book was complete as early as 1984. A grant from a former colleague who had become a video-technology millionaire enabled Lynch to leave Fermilab in 1990 and concentrate full-time on writing.