RE: electric meme bombs

From: Vincent Campbell (VCampbell@dmu.ac.uk)
Date: Thu 17 Oct 2002 - 11:31:59 GMT

  • Next message: Vincent Campbell: "RE: electric meme bombs"

    >> > I know what song I'm going to sing before I sing it
    > >
    >> You're alone in this.

            <In five minutes I shall sing "London Bridges". Anyone else can make a
    > similar decision regarding a ditty whose melody and lyrics they know,
    > that is, whose memetic structure they have internalized.>
    >
            That's not what Wade meant. Until you wrote that (and indeed others read it) the only person who knew what song you were going to sing was you. And, without you indicating in advance, the only way anyone else would know is when you sang it. Moreover, at that point, all other people know is what you are singing, not what you intended to sing, or how long you'd been planning it.

            If you're applying meme to mean any meaningful thing that a brain does, then I don't see any value in this. Decisions about church attendance or concert-going, are just that decisions. They're not memes unless carried out, or articulated in some kind of way. If someone owns up to the priest as to why they missed a service, then you, possibly, have the transmission of a meme.

            I presume you're pointing to the necessary presence of concepts like
    'concert going', the song to sing etc., in advance of their transmission or performance. But surely the thing that makes these things memes is the transmission, dissemination, or perhaps as Wade is currently advocating, behaved/performed. Like he said, if you ain't on the field, you're not playing the game (or in the case of the NY Mets this year, even being on the field doesn't mean you're playing).

            Vincent

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