Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id IAA10896 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 24 Mar 2000 08:57:21 GMT From: "Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: objections to "memes" Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 00:55:15 -0800 Message-ID: <NBBBIIDKHCMGAIPMFFPJIEMMEIAA.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: <A4400389479FD3118C9400508B0FF230040BC9@DELTA.newhouse.akzonobel.nl> Importance: Normal Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
No one is talking about explaining memetics at a neurobiological level. If
you collapse "internal" memetics with operational explanations at the
neurobiological level you miss entirely what people are excited about. The
idea is that the contents of people's minds affects their behavior. If you
refuse to examine the contents of people's minds because you don't have an
instrument that does it with precision, you miss out on the heart of
memetics.
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: Thursday, March 23, 2000 5:36 AM
To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
Subject: RE: objections to "memes"
Richard:
So I ask again, how do you explain it? [a learned behavior]
Derek:
Oh, I can't explain it at all. If I ever understood how and why people
learn, I would have stayed in academia.
But seriously, I don't think it matters that I can't explain learning at the
neurobiological level. How a behaviour replicates isn't really what
memetics is about. What memetics is about is the way that learned
behaviours evolve under selective pressures, how cultures diverge etc. It's
a population-level rather than an individual-level approach.
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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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