Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA15130 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 9 May 2000 15:30:01 +0100 From: "Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Central questions of memetics Date: Tue, 9 May 2000 07:27:14 -0700 Message-ID: <NBBBIIDKHCMGAIPMFFPJGEJOEMAA.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: <3917D482.6CEF718D@mediaone.net> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Chuck wrote:
<<no one in this list has answered my
central question - what is the advantage of treating memes as having an
independent existence instead of being tools that people use to solve the
problems of existence -- tools, albeit, that *always* have unintended
consequences.>>
Several people have taken a crack at communicating the essence of the idea
to you. Frankly, if reading my 250-page book on the subject didn't enlighten
you I doubt anything I could say in an email would have much effect. From
reading your posts I have a hunch that you are emotionally invested in the
"intelligent design" theory of cultural evolution, that people see needs and
create inventions to fill those needs. Those inventions then spread, or
don't, because of their utility. The problem is, the definition of "utility"
needs to be bent so far to explain the prevalence of things like
ever-growing government bureaucracies, astrology, chain letters, and fashion
trends that some people are unsatisfied with that explanation.
Memetics takes the position that culture evolves the way it does because
some ideas---memes---possess the properties, in a given cultural context and
with the general psychological makeup of humans, to proliferate faster and
wider than others. In addition there's the notion that cultural
organisms---memeplexes or viruses of the mind---have evolved to take
advantage of their environment---our minds---and spread with greater and
greater effectiveness.
Why is this a more satisfying explanation than yours? Really, without
experimentation all I can do is plead obviousness. This is the major
obstacle to memetics being taken seriously: experimental results are very
scarce as of yet. You are right to be skeptical. That said, I think anyone
who actually wants to have an effect on the world would be foolish not to
engineer that effect through the memetic model. I called my book "Virus of
the Mind" and put a scary syringe on the cover, pumping ideas into a brain,
because I wanted to push people's buttons and get them to notice the book.
If I believed in your "utility" model that wouldn't have mattered. I jumped
at the chance to appear on Oprah! because I know that TV spreads memes. I
don't think you can argue that point. A book that Oprah likes sells more
copies than a "useful" book that gets no exposure.
So don't get hung up on "independent existence." No one is claming any
mystical properties of memes. Looking at culture from the point of view of
the meme is just a trick to wrap our brains around a complex phenomenon in
search of a useful explanation that, in spite of its immense utility, has
had difficulty spreading.
Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com
http://www.memecentral.com/rbrodie.htm
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