Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id HAA21555 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 3 Apr 2002 07:04:48 +0100 Message-ID: <002f01c1dadc$2afbf460$5e2ffea9@oemcomputer> From: "Philip Jonkers" <philipjonkers@prodigy.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <LAW2-F104tvqbUBkcEl0001a0b8@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: To be or not to be: memetics a science? Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 21:52:35 -0900 Organization: Prodigy Internet Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> >Hello, Grant, to be specific, what social sciences cover the areas
> >addressed
> >by memetics?
> >
> >Lawrence
> >
> To tell the truth, I still haven't been able to pin down exactly what
> memtics addresses. This list, for example, seems to address everything
from
> science to newspaper stories but none of them in a way that seems any way
> different from the general discussion of these subjects. What areas are
we
> addressing as suitable to the study of memetics? What do we say about
them
> that is not taken from some other science, such as genetics or philosophy?
> We cam't even agree on a definition of the subject and what it
encompasses,
> as near as I can see.
>
> If we're just going to back our arguements with the words of philosophers,
> biologists, cosmologists and neurologists, why not cut out the middle man?
> The arguements are stimulating, but neither Dawkins nor Darwin would refer
> to themselves as memeticists, I don't believe. Who are the memeticists
who
> define the interests of memetics? Susan Blackmore leaps to mind, but her
> book seems to be more of a general survey of the literature than a
defining
> treatise on the subject.
>
> Maybe I just don't get it, but so far all I've seen on the subject of
> memetics is tons of speculation and very little of the kind of rigor that
> categorizes and defines what is and is not memetic.'
>
> Grant
To the best of my knowledge, memetics is founded on the recognition of a
second replicator, the meme. Similar to replicators of the first kind:
genes,
memes are also necessarily subject to evolution. Memetics tries to describe
this process of evolution in which this replicator thrives, which currently
is
human culture and may very well turn into an AI-kind of turf one day.
Another perspective which may be considered typical for memetics
is to take on the viewpoint from the meme itself: the meme's eyeview
(possibly inspired after Dawkins' gene's eyeview expounded in The Selfish
Gene).
In this rather controversial interpretation of culture the focus is laid on
the meme which exploits its habitat of rendered robotic and slavelike hosts
in a
metaphorically and perceived selfish way to achieve domination over `rival'
memes.
A disadvantage of this approach however is that it understates or even
ignores
the coercive force memes need to have in order to successfully persuade
their
potential hosts to adopt and propagate them.
But that's a different story altogether. My point is that genetics has
opportunities to
test their theories regarding gene-dynamics. By symmetry, one might expect
memetics
to be able to do the same thing regarding meme-dynamics. And that's
precisely the
question I'm trying to address here.
Phil.
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