Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA13274 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 5 Mar 2000 20:21:40 GMT Message-Id: <200003052022.PAA00337@mail1.lig.bellsouth.net> From: "Joe E. Dees" <joedees@bellsouth.net> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 14:23:42 -0600 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: RE: new line: what's the point? In-reply-to: <NBBBIIDKHCMGAIPMFFPJCEFNEHAA.richard@brodietech.com> References: <00030515230703.00439@faichney> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12b) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: "Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: new line: what's the point?
Date sent: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 08:05:48 -0800
Send reply to: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Joe wrote:
>
> >Most memes,
> >and especially successfully selected ones, are transmitted and
> >attended to by choice, because to choose to transmit and/or
> >receive them is believed to hold some positive value for the
> >transmitter/receiver, or to choose to forbear from such memetic
> >transmission/reception is believed to hold some negative value for
> >the transmitter/receiver, or both.
>
> I assume you are not necessarily ruling out "unconscious choice" when you
> make this statement. In my judgment the vast majority of memes are selected
> unconsciously. For instance, repetition of broadcast information (such as
> advertising slogans and TV serials) tends to be retained and sometimes
> passed on. If only we all chose the memes we transmitted consciously! (see
> http://www.memecentral.com/level3.htm for an unscientific mythology around
> this)
>
Yes, we have a lot of unwelcome garbage cluttering up our memory
banks, placed there by the inexorable pounding and sticky hooks
of slick and repetitive advertizing, and this does add to the pool of
alternatives we consider between when we make our choices;
otherwise, advertizing would not be a profitable venture. Frequently
we sleepwalk through life, and allow the first alternatives which
comes to mind to be our default choices. But these choices are
not entirely unconscious; they are instead unattended to, not
focused upon, occupying the fringes of our awareness due to their
being perceived as insignificant or routine (making no differences
which really make differences). Those decisions which we perceive
as momentous or novel are the ones for which our attentional filters
tend to reserve our finite attentional time; sometimes, things pass
the filters which shouldn't, or fail to pass them when they should,
and we should be on guard against this, as much as we can, but if
we autistically attempted to totally focus and concentrate upon
every little detail that flits briefly into our awareness, we'd never get
anything done, including our own lives.
>
> Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com www.memecentral.com/rbrodie.htm
>
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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