Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id BAA24797 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 19 Apr 2002 01:33:24 +0100 Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 17:28:04 -0700 From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net> Subject: Re: Thoughts and Perceptions To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Message-id: <3CBF6494.F4FC1F64@pacbell.net> Organization: Saybrook Graduate School X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en]C-CCK-MCD {Yahoo;YIP052400} (Win95; U) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT X-Accept-Language: en,ja References: <JJEIIFOCALCJKOFDFAHBKEJFELAA.richard@brodietech.com> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dear Richard,
> <<As for truth making a meme more fit, Richard has a very good take on
> that, and, as I'm sure he'll agree, it's a fallacy at best....>>
>
> I think Dennett's idea of "Good Tricks" is the midway in this carnival
> sideshow we're having. Some concepts are so naturally developed from the
> nature of reality that we cannot help but form them eventually. While they
> can still be transmitted memetically to be sure (after all, didn't we all
> learn about Newton's Laws in school?), they are so clearly true that we call
> them "discoveries."
>
> As Wade says, though, truth is not a prime selector for memetic
> transmission.
Fitness and transmission are two different questions. (Although related,
obviously.) I agree that truth has little to do with transmission. It
has to do with the question of survival.
Best,
Bill
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