Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA06227 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 22 Mar 2000 18:52:01 GMT From: Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk> Organization: Reborn Technology To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: objections to "memes" Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 18:13:22 +0000 X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.0.21] Content-Type: text/plain References: <A4400389479FD3118C9400508B0FF230040BC0@DELTA.newhouse.akzonobel.nl> Message-Id: <00032218215801.00894@faichney> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Wed, 22 Mar 2000, Gatherer, D. (Derek) wrote:
>Richard:
>I forget, Derek... how do you explain a learned behavior -- say cracking an
>egg open with one hand against the edge of a bowl -- being repeated over and
>over again if nothing is stored internally?
>
>Derek:
>Something must be happening internally, and it may well be localised, eg.
>the cabbies are all exercising their posterior hypothalami, but
>a) probably what goes on in my brain when I crack an egg is not the same as
>what goes on in yours, except in the grossest regional sense (maybe chefs,
>like cabbies, have particular parts of their brains that ... etc), so
>nothing internal replicates in any sense of the word 'replicate', except the
>fudgiest, hand-waviest etc.
This is Dennett's position, and mine too. But some people (naming no names)
view the subjective aspect as sufficient or even necessary, so though there may
be no objective correlation between what's happening inside your skull and mine,
the "fact" that we (presumably) share aspects of the experience, is enough to
validate the claim that memes are "in the mind", i.e. internal. Not very
scientific, of course, but there you go...
Of course, the concept of encoding neatly sidesteps all such difficulties, but
I'm fed up saying that, and will leave it for now.
-- Robin Faichney===============================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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