Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA27889 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 11 May 2000 19:39:26 +0100 Message-ID: <001501bfbb7b$bbf48900$950dbed4@default> From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <NBBBIIDKHCMGAIPMFFPJMEJOEMAA.richard@brodietech.com> Subject: Re: Central questions of memetics Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 21:04:28 +0200 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Brodie <richard@brodietech.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, May 09, 2000 4:33 PM
Subject: RE: Central questions of memetics
> Chuck wrote:
>
> <<First, what does it mean to say "not
> because they are 'good ideas'?" but that nevertheless "push our
evolutionary
> buttons and force us to pay attention to them." Do you mean those in the
> media
> who manufacture stories on the nightly news that either simply exaggerate
> certain dangers or even manufacture them?>>
>
> Successful news producers know what sells to their audience. It's easy to
> recognize a "nightly news" story versus an "NPR" story. No evil intention
is
> necessary, only the recognition that certain news items are more
interesting
> to the audience than others, and the audiences are drown to the stations
> that provide those type of stories. "Usefulness" is not a particular
factor.
> Sensationalism, for the masses, tends to be, as are stories about
> celebrities, disasters, scandals, and so on... very primal interests.
<< I don't quite follow the discussion, I got other problems to sort out,
but
in the case as mentioned as above I wonder which memes are propagating
and evolving here !? Those of the succesfull producers and their bosses
which must " make up " stories to make money or the memes of the audience
who wants sensation,disasters and so on ?
There must be a kind of interaction !? >>
> <<But I still cannot see how treating memes as independent viruses is
> useful. It
> just seems to me that culture is a part of Darwinian evolution, not
> something
> that evolves off by it's own. What am I missing?>>
>
> Memes and viruses are not the same thing. Mind viruses are larger
> superorganisms. Adherents to religions tend to share some memes, which are
> components of these superorganisms, but the meme is not the virus.
>
> Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com
> http://www.memecentral.com/rbrodie.htm
>
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
>
===============================================================
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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