From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Mon 19 May 2003 - 03:04:05 GMT
> on 5/18/03 9:17 PM, Richard Brodie at richard@brodietech.com wrote:
>
> [snip]
>
> > I don't understand why anyone would say memories can't be memes. The
> > statement doesn't even make sense to me. A definition can't be
> > wrong. At worst, you could say the study of mental replicators is
> > useless. I don't happen to think it is, but then again I'm not a
> > researcher. But this constant diatribe against "memesinthemid" makes
> > no sense to me. Not that I think it's wrong, just that I don't even
> > understand the argument.
>
> So, just how do you define "meme"? Let us say that we define a meme
> to be an entity that plays a role in cultural processes that is
> analogous to the role that a gene plays in biological processes.
> That, I believe, is what Dawkins had in mind and what Dennett has
> defended.
>
> So, we now examine cultural processes to see what, if any, entities
> fit the definition. You claim to have found such entities in people's
> minds. Wade claims that is impossible and so do I. We're not
> disagreeing with the definition -- assuming you more or less agree
> with it. We're disagreeing about where to look in the world to find
> entities that satisfy the definition. --
>
But memerlexii evolve, by means of mutation and selection. If a
performeme only exists during a performance, then disappears
thereafter, one wonders where the evolution is or possibly could be.
And then again, one would have to explain, in the absence of learned
skills cognitively stored as memories, why infants have a hard time
dancing like Baryshnikov or solving cosmological mysteries like
Stephen Hawking.
>
> 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
>
===============================================================
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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