Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA10772 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 15 May 2002 22:37:28 +0100 From: <rrecchia@mail.clarityconnect.com> Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 17:35:27 -0400 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: pls direct me to a memetics list <eom> X-Mailer: WorldClient Pro 2.2.1 In-Reply-To: <0F769C7B-6846-11D6-B567-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> Message-ID: <1190624184-4342907@smtp.clarityconnect.com> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>
> On Tuesday, May 14, 2002, at 05:08 , Steve Drew wrote:
>
> > It is a message who's sole excistance relies on "copy me or
> > else!"
>
> And upon superstition, and leisure time, and social standing, and a
> postal service or other distribution, and perhaps a hundred other
> motivations and forces none of which will be, ever are, or could even
> be
> investigated or corrected for.
>
> IMHO such studies are useless. They are only valid as meters of
> academia's distance from practicality.
>
> - Wade
>
>
As opposed to a discussion of why religious fundamentalism spreads among
Moslems or numerous other hot button topics you frequently participate
in. Clearly none of the factors you have mentioned above cloud or muddy
the precise analysis engaged in here.
Neither the cladistic nor the population distribution analysis I
suggested need necessarily get into those motivations. They would simply
catalog relations among letters and population frequencies, leaving
causal analysis for another time. Such studies would produce useful
information much in the same way that a classification and population
distribution analysis of related species need not immediately get into
why speciation occurred or the reasons for differences in population
distribution. Check 'Reconstruction of organisational phylogeny from
memetic similarity analysis: Proof of feasibility' by Andrew Lord and If
Price in the September issue of the Journal of Memetics for an example.
I suspect that chain letters could be much more objectively classified
than religious denominations.
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