# Answer (summary) — see REPORT.md for the full methods and findings

Yes: comparative-phylogenetic reasoning can be applied to memes in the Enron corpus, provided the
biological objects are re-defined (idea families for tale types, authored instances for variants,
the time-ordered communication graph for the language tree, contact-backed descent edges for
vertical inheritance, broadcast/similarity-only edges for horizontal diffusion, permutation and
parsimony tests for phylogenetic signal). The full corpus (517,401 rows → 254,222 unique messages)
was parsed, propagating passages were discovered without fraud keywords, and six idea families
were analysed in depth with one neutral control.

Where the candidate ideas originated and how they spread:

* **Leadership reassurance ("performance has never been stronger")** — first written by Ken Lay's
  office on 14 Aug 2001 (uid 23399); spread top-down by broadcast to 121 mailboxes and 30 forwards;
  mutated from performance → earnings → confidence → merger claims; misleading in hindsight, not
  provably knowing.
* **"One-time charges" framing of the Q3-2001 losses** — Chairman's office, 16 Oct 2001 (uid 2646);
  the "related-party/LJM" vocabulary entered internal mail from press and a Salomon analyst note
  (17–22 Oct) and the framing mutated to "restatement" on 8 Nov (uid 4158); widest reach (156
  mailboxes, 299 forwards); misleading framing corrected under external pressure.
* **Raptor/LJM2 "accounting hedge"** — first in the corpus 10 Apr 2000 (uid 218844), rationale
  stated by Delainey 11 May 2000; the only family with strong person-to-person descent (68 of 82
  edges contact-backed, p = 0.002), confined to ENA legal/finance; the idea predates the corpus
  record and its designers are not mailbox owners; execution of a later-condemned structure,
  intent not shown.
* **Document preservation orders** — West-desk lineage from the California Attorney General letter
  (14 Dec 2000, uid 80598 → Belden 22 Dec 2000, uid 76115) and a company-wide lineage from General
  Counsel (26 Oct 2001, uid 800), spliced by Belden on 1 Nov 2001; anti-concealment.
* **"The market is working, regulation is not"** — Chairman's office talking points, 14 Aug 2000
  (uid 113804), carried by Government Affairs to an all-hands note (13 Mar 2001); a stable script
  re-told independently; aggressive advocacy, knowing falsity not establishable from e-mail.
* **External "donate your proceeds" accusation** — Working Assets template, 29 Jan 2002, 1,122
  senders in 20 h, zero internal lineage; the shared-source control.

The corpus dates first written transmission, not conception, and no family yields e-mail evidence
of an author knowingly asserting a falsehood. Deliverables: `REPORT.md`, `analysis.py` +
`pipeline/`, `results/*.csv`, `figures/*.svg`, `README.md`.