Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA10009 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 8 May 2000 15:23:08 +0100 From: "Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Central questions of memetics Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 07:20:23 -0700 Message-ID: <NBBBIIDKHCMGAIPMFFPJIEHOEMAA.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 (9.0.2911.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <3915AEB4.9BE0796F@mediaone.net> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Chuck Palson wrote:
<<I don't see how positing memes as having a life of their
own helps out - or could. So if you think so, maybe you can clarify why the
concept of memes would help.>>
You're not the first to shoot down the philosophical biases of the notable
writers in the field. Many have taken issue with Blackmore's Buddhist
leanings (although if you really believe memes spread chiefly because they
are useful then you should be the first to believe that Buddhism must be
among the world's most useful ideas, with over 300 million adherents, almost
a third as useful as the Super Bowl) and Dawkins's anti-religious bias. Both
Dawkins and Blackmore, however, make some very valuable theoretical points
in their writings. Dawkins named the meme, for which you can love or hate
him, and generated good controversy with his essay "viruses of the mind."
Blackmore has some very interesting theory about coevolution of the brain
and culture. Many of the criticisms of her book are answered in my earlier
book, but if The Meme Machine is your intro to memetics then you may not
have that advantage.
I appreciate your honesty in the repeated use of "as far as I can see." The
concept of differential survival of replicators is a difficult and
unintuitive one. The spread of Darwin's theory has suffered at the hands of
the "argument from personal incredulity" for 150 years and still does. One
reason I think memes spread is because they fit in with people's existing
belief systems. That's why Grandpa doesn't use the Internet even though it
might be useful for eliminating repetitive behaviors and so on. People have
been coming to me weekly since Virus of the Mind was published with similar
questions and arguments (see question #3 in the Memetics FAQ at
www.memecentral.com/index.htm#FAQ ).
As for journalism being a science, I am not familiar with any scientific
experiments that have been done in the field and, as would I'm sure many
other subscribers to this list, would love to hear about them. When you say
that the reasons are "well known"---well, so is Santa Claus. That doesn't
make it science. Having been a journalist myself I judge the field to be
extraordinarily unscientific.
Not that memetics has yet done itself proud in the way of experimentation...
Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com http://www.memecentral.com
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