Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id XAA00286 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 25 Feb 2002 23:10:27 GMT X-Originating-IP: [194.117.133.84] User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2022 Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 23:01:50 +0000 Subject: Re: handiness From: Steve Drew <srdrew_1@hotmail.com> To: Jom-emit <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Message-ID: <B8A071D3.20B%srdrew_1@hotmail.com> Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-OriginalArrivalTime: 25 Feb 2002 23:04:13.0782 (UTC) FILETIME=[BE062760:01C1BE50] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 22:07:16 -0500
From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
Subject: Re: handiness
On Sunday, February 24, 2002, at 09:30 , rmey4892 wrote:
> finally its not so easy to chose whatever is handiest. Religion, fast
> food,
> and cars are hard to come by if you've never seen them before.
Yes, but, you see, handy things are _not_ things that one has never seen
before. The religion of one's family is _the_ handiest thing around, and
the MacDonald's down the block is just that much handier than the Burger
King three streets down. The fact that there is little to no difference
among the choices is what is moot.
> (picking fruit from a fruit tree appears to me to be the fastest food I
> ever
> saw, and perhaps I would not need to be "given" the meme for it.)
Perhaps no meme is required, but a fruit tree is, and a handy one at
that. Living in a city as I do, I cannot see a fruit tree unless I
travel long distances, and that is not handy. The grocery store around
the corner is handy. And faster.
> interesting that you should bring up music. I actually wondered if you
> were
> serious there at first, but it makes sense.
You are far from alone in wondering if I am serious. But, of course, I
am. Music, as W. Benzon later chimed in, may be a more important
cultural marker than language.
But, the conclusion I am more coming to is that speciation is a
meaningless concept in memetics, until the meme itself is sequenced.
- - Wade
I agree with you there.
Regards
Steve
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