Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA06481 (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 20:24:55 GMT From: "Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: objections to "memes" Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 12:23:12 -0800 Message-ID: <NBBBIIDKHCMGAIPMFFPJOELDEIAA.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) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 In-Reply-To: <A4400389479FD3118C9400508B0FF230040BC0@DELTA.newhouse.akzonobel.nl> Importance: Normal Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
So I ask again, how do you explain it?
Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com www.memecentral.com/rbrodie.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
Of Gatherer, D. (Derek)
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2000 8:20 AM
To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
Subject: RE: objections to "memes"
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.
b) even if something internal does replicate in any sense worthy of the
name, we can't currently observe it given the technology we have.
However, the behaviour _does_ replicate and we _can_ observe it.
In the summer of 98 I posted a short piece to the list called 'Doing the
neural walk' (can't remember what the source of the title was) which takes
John Eccles' description of the neural correlates of a simple behaviour, and
shows just how
a) difficult it would be to detect any replicating neural event, due to
their extreme complexity, and
b) inherently unlikely that there are such things, given what we know about
motor control of behaviour.
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