Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id FAA25065 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 5 Apr 2002 05:30:17 +0100 Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2002 23:24:25 -0500 Subject: Re: To be or not to be: memetics a science? Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: <B8D2989B.C1%srdrew_1@hotmail.com> Message-Id: <032DDF43-484D-11D6-B3CC-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.481) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Thursday, April 4, 2002, at 05:56 , Steve Drew wrote:
> Man is the measure of all things?
The complete quote-
"Of the gods I know nothing, whether they exist or do not exist: nor what
they are like in form. Many things stand in the way of knowledge - the
obscurity of the subject, the brevity of human life."
"Man is the measure of all things, of things that are, that they are, of
things that are not, that they are not."
Although I'm sure Joe would have much to say, wherever he is, the fact
that we are the only ones measuring is sufficient to gain understanding
of my usage. Nothing to be judgmental about. Nothing said about good or
bad, just measurement. And science is measurement, if it is nothing
else. But, what to measure? One needs the millimeter to use a meter
stick. One needs the meme to use memetics.
And what I've always meant by unethical is the process where, in order
to identify and isolate a meme, one has to 'grow' a human who is absent
of memes, and that is unethical, as it would demand, as the wild
children have shown, incomplete development.
Eavesdropping is not science. It may be a form of data gathering, for
novelists or pundits or gossipers, but it is not science.
- Wade
===============================================================
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 archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Apr 05 2002 - 05:41:08 BST