Re: The Electric Meme

From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Tue 11 Mar 2003 - 04:03:14 GMT

  • Next message: Keith Henson: "Re: memetics-digest V1 #1313"

    At 12:05 PM 10/03/03 -0500, you wrote:
    >on 3/10/03 11:09 AM, Samuel Rose at samuel.rose@voyager.net wrote:
    >
    >[snip]
    >
    > > I have only recently subscribed to this list, and I have recently got
    > > ahold of a copy of Robert Aunger's "The Electric Meme".
    > >
    > >
    > > I have not found many references here to his theory about what "memes"
    > > are, and was wondering if anyone had any input on this book/theory?
    > >
    >
    >I've written a rather scathing review of the book:
    >
    >http://human-nature.com/nibbs/02/benzon.html
    >
    >Basically, his neuroscience is incompetent and his theory internally
    >inconsistent.

    After going out and reading your review (where you said the first 6 chapters were a competent statement of the current state of memetics) I tend to agree. If you really don't understand what is going on with something, characterizing it as a black box (where you don't try to look inside) is the best way to start. It lets you get on with larger scale analysis without worrying over details you can't see anyway. Dawkins studies with the hard wired wasps comes to mind. Dawkins had no idea of what was going on inside the wasp even though the insect's neural system was orders of magnitude less complicated than a human.

    Though William Calvin doesn't try to connect mental activity to memes, he does some of the most interesting work in the area of how thought is supported by the physical structure of the brain. Calvin makes a case for full scale Darwinian evolution running on a scale of milliseconds to seconds on "sequencing" in preparation to hurling a projectile or speaking a sentence. Aunger's thesis in the second half of his book sounds a bit like he might have heard about Calvin's work through a rumor chain.

    Keith Henson

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