RE: meaning in memetics

From: Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Thu Feb 17 2000 - 17:05:00 GMT

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Subject: RE: meaning in memetics
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 12:05:00 -0500
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From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
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    On 02/17/00 11:05, Richard Brodie said this-

    >My view is that culture evolves in
    >very complex ways and that there are interesting foci of replication
    >including memes (mental information, beliefs, attitudes, strategies) and
    >mind viruses (cultural organisms comprised of memes, artifacts, and people).

    And it is not without merit to include genetics in this list, indeed, it
    should be leading all the rest.

    Beings without any culture may replicate and evolve- and may even adapt
    behaviors relevant to their environment (as do birds and spiders and
    octopi, et alia, et omnia) that, upon perception, could be evaluated as
    _progressing_ and _changing_ over time, but, really, what is changing is
    not the 'trick' of the birdsong (which is established in genetics), but
    the auditorium in which the bird sings. That the bird, and we, have an
    auditorium which includes the songs of others, is an inescapable and not
    dismissable fact.

    The relevance of environment cannot be overlooked- it shares with
    genetics, and the 'tricks' of successful evolutionary strategies, to
    develop culture, to develop the behavioral adaptations that we _call_
    'culture'.

    That there are songs that will never be sung, or that wait to be heard,
    is nature in its constancy.

    - Wade

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