Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA22325 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 10 Jun 2000 18:03:43 +0100 X-Authentication-Warning: wolfe.umd.edu: debivort owned process doing -bs Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2000 13:01:52 -0400 (EDT) From: "Lawrence H. de Bivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu> X-Sender: debivort@wolfe.umd.edu To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Imitation or transmission? In-Reply-To: <4.3.1.0.20000610110746.01e03dd0@popmail.mcs.net> Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.4.21.0006101246100.18957-100000@wolfe.umd.edu> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Sat, 10 Jun 2000, Aaron Lynch wrote:
>
>There should really be no surprise that people do not simply donate
>serious, potentially lucrative memetic engineering ideas over a listserver.
>That would only lead to business competition. Memetically speaking, those
>who know of good memetic engineering ideas have little reason for giving
>their knowledge away free of charge.
There is another reason why this won't happen: memetic engineering can
give rise to powerful changes, and it is not clear that this kind of power
is necessarily beneficial. Until the _moral_ dynamics of memetics are
better understood, it is better, IMHO, to not push the capability.
>Paraphrasings of existing marketing science using the word "meme" are
>another matter, however. Without giving away any valuable new insights
>attained with replicator theory, one can make oneself appear to have
>lucrative new ideas. Appearances are the next best thing to reality in
>terms of making money: imparting such appearances can win lucrative
>contracts for work that could just as easily have been done by people
>oblivious to memetics. The different propagation advantages for serious
>memetic engineering ideas and mere claims thereof can create a situation
>where most of what is available free of charge is hype.
Agreed. Oddly enough, though, given my concern over the moral situation,
this kind of hype (and consequent failure of the associated claims) may
serve to occlude the actual potential in the idea of memes, and so may
actually be a good thing. Of course, from an academic POV, this is wrong
thinking, given the belief that unfettered truth is an absolute good.
So I do not recommend that this listserv examine memetic engineering, even
though it interests me personally. My background is political science, and
the movement of beliefs and their effects on decison-making is of key
interest to me.
>By the way, what is the Memetics Group?
A team brought together in 1998 to explore memetics, primarily from a
societal and cognitive POV.
- Lawrence
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