From: Richard Brodie (richard@brodietech.com)
Date: Sat 24 May 2003 - 01:16:46 GMT
Bill B wrote:
[RB]
> A phenotype, by definition, is the machine the replicator builds that
works
> to get the replicator replicated. It is not the replicator itself. So
Bill's
> theory fits right into mainstream memetics unless he maintains that minds
> are not involved in making performances.
[BB]
<<Sure minds are involved in making performances. But the memes aren't in
the
minds. The minds, in some sense, do perceive the memes out there in the
world. The fact that a mind perceives a meme doesn't, in my view, mean that
the mind somehow copies or replicates the meme.>>
Bill,
First, let me just be clear that I was not referring to you in my post
saying a certain list member was playing a prank with his many "performance
model" posts. I apologize if that was not clear to you or to other list
members. I consider you an honest and intelligent contributor and of course
your academic credentials far exceed my own.
Your post here brings me back to what I thought your position was, pretty
much in agreement about cultural evolution through differential selection of
replicators, just not wanting to use the word "meme" the way Dawkins/Dennett
settled on, and the way I repeated in my 1995 book. It's like that word is
the Holy Grail the way people are fighting to own the definition.
Your last point, though, raises a question for me. If the mind does not copy
or replicate the (artifact or behavior, your definition) meme, then what
does?
Richard Brodie
www.memecentral.com
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