Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA00449 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 17 May 2000 15:08:04 +0100 Message-Id: <3.0.6.32.20000516185618.0079bd60@megalink.net> X-Sender: abyss@megalink.net (Unverified) X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.6 (32) Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 18:56:18 -0400 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Kurt Young <abyss@megalink.net> Subject: Re: Why are human brains bigger? In-Reply-To: <391F0857.208F3DC9@mediaone.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Does anybody have a copy for a discussion on the relative aspects of a meme?
abyss@megalink.net
At 09:11 PM 5/14/00 +0100, you wrote:
>Blackmore in Meme Machine claims that the only reason she can think of
>why human brains are so big is because they accomodate so many memes.
>That may very well be true and not at all in contradiction to what other
>sciences have been thinking about for quite a while. After all, it is
>known that we have a huge lexicon - 80,000 words by the time the average
>"illiterate" kid graduates from an American high school! And then that
>same kid has to keep learning all kinds of things constantly through his
>life that are, believe it or not, _useful_ for making a living. The
>point is there is no reason to suppose that memes are like genes that
>have an independent life of their own as Blackmore claims.
>
>But the number of memes that have to be crammed into our heads goes
>beyond just simple knowledge of those sorts of objective things we need
>to know to make a living. There is a lot of stuff we have to know also
>just to live with other peoplel. The problem is that people tend to
>cheat - they want something for nothing. But in order to cheat and lie,
>they have to remember who they lied to, what lie works with each person
>they have to deal with, and what they have to cover up from other people
>to make sure they are credible to everyone. It's an enormous amount of
>social information and computational power just to keep it all straight.
>
>There is some interesting cross species information that tends to
>confirm this explanation for why the human brain is so large: In many
>kinds of animals, the largest brain and smartest behaving species are
>social -- like bees, parents, Dolphins, etc. social animals send and
>receive signals to coordinate attacks, and defense, gathering, in
>collective sexual access. They exchange favors, repay and enforce
>debts, punish cheers, enjoying coalitions. In other words, the social
>animals have societies just like we do also have larger brains.
>
>
>===============================================================
>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
>
>
>
===============================================================
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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