From: Chris Taylor (Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk)
Date: Thu 14 Nov 2002 - 15:58:20 GMT
> Actually, more seriously I think the virus metaphor doesn't
> encapsulate the spread of memes for me. After all teaching is part of
> cultural transmission as well, and that surely changes the environmental
> conditions in which any virus-like memes operate so much so that the
> metaphor may lose its strength.
Same old story - analogy gives us a partial view. I think the whole of
the biosphere (and the abiotic stuff to an extent) provides enough
analogies to cover just about all of it, but viruses are just one mode.
Although teaching could be analogous to an innoculation with live virus
(ish).
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Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
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