From: Grant Callaghan (grantc4@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat 30 Nov 2002 - 22:50:18 GMT
>Date: Sat, 30 Nov 2002 16:10:43 -0500
>
>Hello all,
>
>I am new to the meme world and still don't understand a lot about it. I
>read the Selfish gene book for Dawkins not so long ago and that is where I
>got the idea. I read couple of books after that about memes and I must
>admit it seems very appealing and interesting concept to me.
>As we all know, laughing is only human thing as well as memes (some argue
>that animals do possess memes, but I haven't bought that totally yet). I am
>wondering how did we aquire that. Does it have something thing to do with
>memes or not really? The correlation is there, it is just hard to imagine
>how it came about. Did it have some survival advantagous to us or not
>necesserly. On the other hand it is hard to reconcile it with the fact that
>kids at very young age do laugh which suggest that it could be biological
>thing rather than memetic thing.
>Could any of you guys speculate in this or recommend specific readings
>about it?
>
>Thanks
>
I divide laughter into two types: the laughter that bursts forth in spite
of your attempts to suppress it and laughter you use to express a feeling or
communicate something. As an example of the latter, I talk about polite
laughter used at a cocktail party or the exagerated laughter we use to
express ROTFLMAO laughter. The difference between the two is that the first
is spontaneous and not being used for some purpose while the second is a
tool being used to communicate an idea.
Grant
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