From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Thu 15 May 2003 - 16:59:53 GMT
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <joedees@bellsouth.net>
> > The verbal communication of the 'there's a bear in the berry patch'
> > meme will indeed result in some meme-recipient people not visiting
> > the berry patch. But so will the 'in the berry patch, there is a
> > bear' meme, and for the same people. Performance-wise, these are
> > very different; the speech-action is not even close. Yet, they
> > result in the same avoidance. Clearly the meaning that is encoded
> > in the speech act, that is, the semantics of the message, is the
> > essential, and the particular structure of the message (a structure
> > which mandates a particular speech-act performance) is variable.
> > Now, suppose that one of our meme-recipients is a bear hunter. The
> > sellfsame meme (in any particular construction) that caused others
> > to avoid the berry patch will cause him to grab his gun and rush
> > right over. But why? Quite simply, because the message interacts
> > with already- present memesinthemind, and the hunter's cognitive
> > gestalt is different from that of the treasurer of the local PETA
> > chapter. Thus, we see that the same action can be caused by
> > different constructions of a meme (or even by different memes; say,
> > there's a mountain lion in the berry patch), while different people
> > will perform differently when presented with the selfsame meme,
> > depending upon their existent cognitive gestalt, or the
> > memealreadyintheirminds. Our bear hunter might respond the same or
> > differently, depending upon whether he is also a mountain lion
> > hunter. Meaning, quite simply, cannot be swept under a performatory
> > rug, and it is a fundamental confusion to mistake the encoding
> > device (a pattern of perceptual changes, such as speech-originated
> > sound waves encountering one's ears) for the cognitively authored
> > significance encoded in specific sound patterns.
>
> Joe,
>
> But it doesn 't matter if there was a bear hunter among the people or
> not ! The words, there is a bear in the berry- patch, has been spoken
> out to des- cribe an imminently dangerous situation in a tone that was
> designed to warn people off, the obsevers might actually be frighted
> and back off. Not the bear hunter though, he would indeed take up his
> gun and go hunting, but it is his existent cognitive gestalt that
> makes him do it. His gestalt is indeed different but it is even so a
> cultural command as sitting tight and be frighted of things to come.
>
> The cultural intention is present in the behavior of the hunter as it
> is in the behavior of the others doing nothing. It is how one
> perceives the info that results into a certain behavior and that is
> due to, indeed the meme- recipients. The speech- actions had to be
> recognized, for the formers they were afraid and sat down and did
> nothing, for the latter, he stood up and went hunting. There was no
> intention by the speaker to set off that the ones stay put and that
> the other went hunting or was there !? We can 't tell, people will
> perform differently upon the selfsame meme, yes indeed depending upon
> their existent cognitive gestalt, but there is still a doubt that this
> is done by alreadyinthemindexistingmemes, or memo- ry, or whatever. It
> all can boil down to recognition, to association with and upon
> existing models/ arguments and definitions.
>
> Maybe there isn 't anymemeinthemind, but simply neurons switching on
> and off by " recognizing " viewpoints/ experiences, freedoms and
> repressions. Maybe cultural evolution is due to our genetic ability to
> recognize the simularities between what our neurons tell us and what
> the environment/ culture itself demands/ commands.
>
Those neuronal pattern-switches are, according to MANY MEMETIC
MODELS models (see THE ELECTRIC MEME) how memes are
cognitively encoded.
>
> Regards,
>
> Kenneth
>
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
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> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
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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