Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id EAA05208 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 12 Mar 2000 04:29:36 GMT From: "Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Monkeys stone herdsman in Kenya Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 20:28:01 -0800 Message-ID: <NBBBIIDKHCMGAIPMFFPJIEOKEHAA.richard@brodietech.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <1259327788-4347232@smtp.clarityconnect.com> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Raymond wrote:
<<If someone has a meme writes it down in a book and the book sits around
for
a hundred years before someone picks it and acquires the meme what
terminology do you use to describe the information in the book when no one
has the meme in their head? I'm not saying that you have to call it a meme
when it is sitting in the book I am curious as to what you would call it.>>
I don't know that it's possible to make a one-to-one mapping of memes to
writing, but there are certainly examples where you could write something
down that would tend to spread the behavior for spreading itself. "Kilroy
was here" comes to mind.
I would call information in a book an artifact. It may be that a percentage
of humans with a certain cultural context predictably acquire a certain meme
from observing a single artifact (such as your example), or it may be that
it requires (e.g.) an entire course of study at a university before someone
predictably acquires a certain meme. Either way, as long as the
self-perpetuating structure of acquired mental information is there, it's
properly studied as memetics.
Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com www.memecentral.com/rbrodie.htm
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