From: William Benzon (bbenzon@mindspring.com)
Date: Mon 19 May 2003 - 02:14:17 GMT
on 5/18/03 9:55 PM, Richard Brodie at richard@brodietech.com wrote:
> Wade wrote:
>
> <<Joe, and others, are convinced they have a theory about memes that
> mirrors this discovery model- that it is only a matter of time before
> enough evidence from fMRI and other cognitive investigative
> technologies will provide the reality of the memeinthemind.>>
>
> Thanks for mentioning this, because I think it's a common error with people
> struggling to understand memetics. The only instrument necessary to provide
> the reality of mental replicators is a No. 2 pencil on a standardized exam.
> We know people can learn. We don't need to know exactly how the information
> is stored to know it's there. We know knowledge influences behavior. If it
> doesn't, Harvard is the biggest con game in the history of the world. So
> when knowledge influences behavior in such a way that the knowledge spreads,
> you have a replicator.
>
> Curiously, many people find this difficult to understand. Dawkins found the
> same about genetic evolution. I'm not sure why.
I can't speak for Wade, but I don't have any problem understanding the
claims of people who argue for memes-in-the-head that get replicated from
one person to another. I just don't agree with them.
In a similar fashion, I don't have trouble understanding the claims of
people who believe that the earth is only 6000 years old. But I don't think
those claims are correct.
-- William L. Benzon 708 Jersey Avenue, Apt. 2A Jersey City, NJ 07302 201 217-1010 "You won't get a wild heroic ride to heaven on pretty little sounds."--George Ives Mind-Culture Coevolution: http://asweknowit.ca/evcult/ =============================================================== 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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