From: Grant Callaghan (grantc4@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun 24 Nov 2002 - 15:06:02 GMT
This project sounds promising. I hope you'll keep us informed.
Grant
>
>A quick thought on memetic methodology.
>
>If one views a meme as having an essential linguistic construct, and that
>the expression of the meme is half the act of transmission, and adoption by
>another person is the second half, then indeed it would seem that we have a
>measurable phenomenon, and one that we can use to determine the
>effectiveness of a meme (its transmission), and its performance when it
>comes up against countervailing memes.
>
>Using this approach, I have been able to track and map the dissemination of
>a couple of memes through a society, and also track the mutations that
>occur
>to the meme as it is disseminated.
>
>There is a formal research project underway in memetics, by one of our list
>members. Memes are being tracked in a locality, with a control group, and
>measures made of the behavioral impacts of the meme. I think the results
>may
>be reported in approximately a year. Preliminary reports look promising.
>
>Best regards to all,
>Lawry
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
> > Of Douglas Brooker
>
> > > > I thought for a while that deconstruction had something to
> > offer for the
> > > analysis of memes, but now I'm not so sure. Looking at all the ways
> > > >in which a meme is being used and all the antecedants it
> > carries with it
> > > >seemed promising for a while, but now I can't see where it
> > will lead to any
> > > >concrete results. Each person uses the meme he/she picked up
> > in his own way
> > > >and in conjunction with his/her own baggage of associated
> > ideas. The usage
> > > >is different for each person each time it is used. I can't
> > see what's in
> > > >anyone's head to make comparisons with the memes they are
> > using. We can
> > > >only compare the use of a meme with the memepool at large
> > because it's out
> > > >in the open. That's what deconstruction was about.
> > >
> > > That is right and that is why the search for quantifiable data is
> > > problematic, IMO in memetics.
> >
> > it's not a serious problem in linguistics, so why should in be in
> > memetics? you just need a sound data collection methodology that is
> > memetics specific. what seems to be a problem, based on my rather small
> > knowledge of memetics, is creating a meme-specific theory that is
> > amenable to 'field' work that facilitates the creating of hypotheses and
> > testing them against observable data. talking about the 'religion' meme
> > or the 'terrorist' meme in very general terms, often just a disguised
> > political discourse, verges on the inane after awhile, unless it is the
> > object of your study.
> >
>
>
>
>===============================================================
>This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
>Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
>For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
>see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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