Re: Martin Gardner's commentary

From: John Wilkins (wilkins@wehi.EDU.AU)
Date: Thu Mar 09 2000 - 23:50:10 GMT

  • Next message: Joe E. Dees: "Re: Martin Gardner's commentary" 

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Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2000 10:50:10 +1100
From: John Wilkins <wilkins@wehi.EDU.AU>
Subject: Re: Martin Gardner's commentary
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    On Thu, 09 Mar 2000 18:22:45 -0500 mmills@htcomp.net (Mark M. Mills)
    wrote:

    >The Gardner review follows in the footsteps of the Nature and Science
    >reviews of Blackmore's book. In brief, he thinks it silly. At the end
    >of
    >the review, Gardner sums up his feelings: "Is memetics a misguided
    >attempt
    >on the part of behavioral scientists to imitate genetics with its gene
    >units and physics with its elementary particles? In a few years we may
    >know."
    >
    >I suspect Gardner has little doubt about the outcome. He find the
    >whole
    >notion silly. He quotes H. Allen Ore, to avoid having to say it
    >himself:
    >"H. Allen Ore, a University of Rochester geneticist, was quoted in Time
    >as
    >dismissing memetics as "an utterly silly idea. It's just a cocktail
    >party
    >science."

    It's H Allen Orr, a notable evolutionary biologist at the University of
    Rochester, NY.

    See his home page at
    <http://www.rochester.edu/College/BIO/faculty/Orr.html>, but there's no
    mention of memes on his publication page
    <http://www.rochester.edu/College/BIO/ORRLAB/TALENPAGE.HTML> 

    --

    John Wilkins, Head, Graphic Production
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
Melbourne, Australia
<mailto:wilkins@WEHI.EDU.AU>
<http://www.users.bigpond.com/thewilkins/darwiniana.html>
Homo homini aut deus aut lupus - Erasmus of Rotterdam

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