Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA00944 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 1 Mar 2000 12:38:12 GMT Subject: Re: new line: what's the point? Date: Wed, 1 Mar 2000 07:35:45 -0500 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20000301123517.AAA14203@camailp.harvard.edu@[204.96.32.122]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Soc Microlab 2 made this comment not too long ago --
>This still leaves the question of what *level* memetics becomes a useful
>application, and I say, (after Dennett) that it is at the level of meaning
>rather than below that.
This statement, and the baboon study, have led me to this (not vital, I'm
sure, but, I am here mostly swimming with one arm) - if the meme is
anything, (if what we are is unique, and it more and more seems to seem
that way) - the meme is _what we use to get others to understand_. It is
dependent not only on self-awareness, but upon the awareness that there
are other selves.
And that _is_ a wide and encompassing region of _being_ - here - in this
world, and in this culture. Science, and study, and explanations, have
always needed the view from the outside, the impartial and disinterested
observer, somehow watching and noting without bias. The scientist needs
to be, first and foremost, a person without memes. The scientific method
is a structure designed to mightily eliminate any effects of the observer.
Is memetics a scientific method to study culture? IMHO, it should be.
Because the meme is that mechanism in the mind that goes, "No, no, _this_
is what I mean, not that."
That this sort of explanatory communication can take place unconsciously
_and_ consciously, well, I accept that. But it is memetic to impart, not
simply to import.
- Wade
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