From: Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Thu 31 Oct 2002 - 05:47:03 GMT
On Wednesday, October 30, 2002, at 11:30 , Grant Callaghan wrote:
> That was the meme, at least in my definition of the term.
I should, perhaps, stick to that gun, and use beme at all times. First,
because it is a shortening of 'behavior-only meme', and, brevity is the
soul of wit, as they say. Second, because then those who are invested in
'meme' being somewhere or something else can stay pat. (Not that I
really want them to stay pat, whether or not the light is better over
there....) But, mostly, I think, because it is a nice little word that
says something, seems to me to be more active a word than 'meme', and
thus fits more poetically, and I like poetry.
So, joining, in another sense, with this cadre, a beme can also be said
to be the behavioral expression of a meme- allowing whatever processes
anyone wants to imagine in the memetic brain, along with whatever
repositories of memes happens there, in whatever varieties of memory.
The bemetic stance would say that bemes are the valued analytical
entities we need not only for data, but that culture needs for
continuation and change. It admits of intention and accident, purpose
and faux pas, directed and aleatory events. While it is not as forgiving
as other stances of additional entities and processes in the brain, it
neither rejects nor demands their existence, and would be elated at any
advances in cognitive understanding.
So, I guess I see it as fitting in, comfortably, part of the family, if
we need a family....
- Wade
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