Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA00505 (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 15:08:26 +0100 From: Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk> Organization: Reborn Technology To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: Central questions of memetics Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 20:07:42 +0100 X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.0.21] Content-Type: text/plain References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D31CEB19F@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Message-Id: <00051620293000.00852@faichney> Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Tue, 16 May 2000, Vincent Campbell wrote:
>Excellent example of a purely cultural function of an object, and this then
>begs the questions I'm interested in - where did cultures come from, why do
>we have them and other animals don't, and how do cultures
>persist/develop/change?
Despite the which-came-first question, in this case with regard to memes and
expanded brains, I'm convinced that culture is inevitable where sociability
meets sufficient intelligence. To put this another way, memes require (a)
means of transmission between individuals, and specifically the tendency for
them to copy each other's behaviour, and (b) "spare" information processing
capacity, facilitating behaviour that's not too strictly tied to immediate
survival. Because despite Chuck's insistence on usefulness, I think it's
very clear that the overwhelming mass of culture is anything but that -- tied
to immediate survival, I mean. Entertainment value seems much more
significant than actual practical usefulness, and if you widen "useful" to
include "entertaining", then I think it ("useful") loses its usefulness (and
it's not terribly entertaining either). You might even take the view that
culture is just what we do whenever we're not tied to boring old
practicality. Though of course I know it's not really that simple! :-)
(On the net, it's not supposed to matter where you are, but nevertheless I
feel I have to say to Vincent: Greetings from (not so) sunny Dunblane!)
-- Robin Faichney (Graduate and former staff member, Stirling University)===============================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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