Re: What are memes made of?

From: Robin Faichney (robin@faichney.demon.co.uk)
Date: Mon Feb 28 2000 - 18:46:30 GMT

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From: Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk>
Organization: Reborn Technology
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: What are memes made of?
Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 18:46:30 +0000
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    On Mon, 28 Feb 2000, Joe E. Dees wrote:
    >>
    >> I still don't understand why memes should have meaning -- the significance of
    >> significance, if you like, for memetics. I'm really not questioning meaning in
    >> general terms -- how could we do without it??? But what, precisely, is the
    >> place of meaning _in memetics_?
    >>
    >Meaning is the content of the communication. Form bereft of
    >content can have no independent existence in a communication
    >any more than content can have independent of form, just as there
    >can be neither semantics purified of syntax nor syntactics purifies
    >of semantics. There must be (1) coding and (2) the encoded for
    >any transmission/reception to occur; SOMETHING must be
    >communicated - an empty communication is a contradiction in
    >terms, so without it, there is nothing to be memetically multiplied
    >through dissemination.

    Up to that last clause, you were talking about communication, not memetics.
    Then you claim that meaning is "memetically multiplied through dissemination".
    Does that mean just that it's communicated, or is it saying something more?

    >Meaning is also what undergoes mutation and evolution in the individual mind.

    Isn't it memes that mutate and evolve? What, precisely, is the relationship
    between meaning and memes in your scheme? 

    --
Robin Faichney

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