From: Grant Callaghan (grantc4@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu 06 Mar 2003 - 19:21:28 GMT
Perceptual categorization is thus an inherent part of visual processing,
and it is difficult to even talk about object recognition without reference
to categorization.
What the memeinthemind proponents discuss as 'memes' may, perhaps, (I
certainly think so), merely be this categorization, which is not unique to
any brain with [visual] sensory apparatus. Thus, manufacturing a special
case of categorization called a 'meme' in a brain is specious, if not wholly
unnecessary, unless you want to simply call _all_ mental categorizations
'memes' and be done with that. That would allow birdsong to be called
memetic, that's for sure.
- Wade
Categorization is just the beginning of the process. I'ts part of
perception. Perception is based on categories already established. Memes
are created when perceptions are used to establish relationships between
categories. I see an object on a field of objects. It fits the category of
"house." I notice the color on the house fits the category "white." I tell
a friend, "The white house on Hill Street is for sale." I have taken a
perception, put it together with other perceptions and blended the whole
into a meme concerning that perception. Then I encoded and transmitted that
meme to one or more friends or acquaintances. Now we all share a meme or
concept that began with my perception of a house and the environment in
which it stood. It may be true or false (the house may have been sold
already) but what was created in my head out of my perceptions now exists in
the heads of several people.
Grant
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