From: Wade T. Smith (wade.t.smith@verizon.net)
Date: Wed 19 Mar 2003 - 22:46:03 GMT
On Wednesday, March 19, 2003, at 04:15 PM, memetics-digest wrote:
> What I can't agree with is the reduction of culture to genes.
I am not aware of anyone who reduces culture to that singularity. IMHO,
the main reason the concept of the meme was tossed into the air in the
first place was because genes were obviously not adequate as full
explanations for culture, although they did alot. But, as it was
appearing, and continues to appear, that darwinian processes are
universal, culture itself should conform to them, and, for the sake of
understanding, we needed a mechanism for culture analogous to the
mechanisms of organisms. The meme was born, as an analytical tool more
than anything else.
But, how far can culture be reduced until we find this meme thingee? It
is my conclusion that culture is contingent upon the continuation of
performances within it, and that this demands that the performances
themselves be the units of evolution analogous to the gene.
The rest of genetics- AGCT and mutations and environment and
reproduction- all need to have analogs in memetics, and, I have come to
the conclusion that only in the performance model can we provide for
the most analogs.
To me, memesinthemind is an attempt to reduce not only culture to the
'mind', whatever that is, but indeed, to ignore environment and even
time.
- Wade
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