From: Wade T. Smith (wade.t.smith@verizon.net)
Date: Mon 16 Jun 2003 - 20:15:59 GMT
On Monday, June 16, 2003, at 01:51 PM, memetics-digest wrote:
> I still have no idea what you mean by "performance model."
You have proven to be inordinately dense about it, but, you're not
alone. Then again, you aren't living dangerously, either. I suppose I
could say I'd like you to supply what you mean by _your_ model, which,
hmm, does it have a name? I've been calling it the memeinthemind model,
but, maybe that is not clear enough. I thought 'performance model of
cultural evolution' was damn clear- this is a model that demands
performance in order for culture to evolve. Pretty concise, but, what
do I know? Names are important, culturally.... ;-)
How does a memeinthemind manage to make culture evolve? What proof do
you have that any meme in any mind is the same meme in another's mind?
How is this eradication of physical laws explained? I still have no
idea what you mean by 'memeinthemind model'.
The performance model is a model of cultural evolution that posits
cultural evolution can only happen with three players-
1. A performer
2. An observer
3. A place wherein 1 and 2 are together
- and can only happen during the performance that is the product of the
interaction of all three. The 'meme' of the performance model is that
one particular performance itself, and its lifespan is the duration of
the performance, and no further.
(The lifespan of a member of a species, after all, is not the lifespan
of the species itself. A meme is not the species, it is a member of the
species. In the case of cultural evolution, each venue may contain the
required environment for several species- baseball, football, soccer,
e.g.- but each game is a different, unique member of its species, with
little or no cross-fertilization, and each game has a limited duration,
but they are all over when they are over. It is illogical in the
performance model to posit a meme of unlimited duration, or even one
continuing from place to place.)
Both the observer and the performer are self-conscious, social beings
with communicative and imitative skills, in our case, homo sapiens
sapiens.
The place wherein they communicate is called the 'venue' in this model.
Examples of venues are schools, focus groups, baseball fields, offices,
town squares, traffic intersections- in short, anything constructed by
homo sapiens sapiens in the course of its civilization wherein a
performer may be observed. This includes the specific language that
each isolated or separate culture develops, and all the processes of
communication which are shared and understood. Each performer and
observer within a venue is expected to interact with its processes,
but, this is not required of the model. There may be strangers in any
venue, and they could be part of the performance as well.
The performance itself is constrained by the parameters in place within
the venue- language, location, acoustics, sightlines, skill level,
observer interest- this list is boundless, but it is determined by the
performance environment. The performance is also constrained and/or
effected by aleatory and natural forces- wind, rain, mud, fog, ambient
noise, sickness- and this list is also boundless. Any and all
influences upon the performer may lead the resulting performance to
differ, and any one or all of the influences upon the observer-
headache, hunger, pain, apathy, interest, economic gain- may also lead
the resulting observation to differ- and when and if the observer in
turn performs, and thus continues the expectation of the venue, all
these influences come into play again. High skill levels of all
participants will result in high levels of meaning transference, but
these conditions are not easy to implement and not required, although
they are desired, especially within a stable venue. It is the duty of
the venue to ensure at least a level of meaning transference that will
result in a performance at time1 to be similar enough at time2 to be
called by the same cultural marker. (Thus, I see As You Like It at the
Publick Theatre in the park, and then see As You Like It at the
Huntington downtown, and I feel Shakespeare had a hand in both of
them.) Each similar meme is a product of a venue designed and
maintained to produce similar memes and it is venues that continue, not
memes, in this model. This is a striking difference between the two
models we are discussing, and I don't see why you can't grasp this
difference.
Just as each species in genetic evolution is a venue designed and
maintained to produce similar members of the species. Genetic change is
a process of sexual performance, but, there are also influences from
the environment- temperature, food,
(I believe that the mental model does _not_ demand all three
participants for cultural evolution. I could be wrong. I also don't
think it really posits the effects upon culture or the changes due to
aleatory or incidental effects upon the performance itself, (and thus
the presentation of the ideational component of the behavior), but,
perhaps it does. I just haven't ever seen such things mentioned, and,
nowhere in any discussion of the mental model have I ever seen any
discussion of performance theory, all of which leads me to think the
mental model is denying the effects of the venue for some cryptic
quality of communication which happens outside the realm of physical
transmission, where memes locate using warp drive from brain to brain,
and everyone understands with remarkable clarity what everyone else is
saying and doing, with no possibility of miscommunication, because,
after all, it is the selfsame meme that is being transmitted. This
whole model approaches ridiculousness once the real world intrudes, so,
I've attempted to include at least a brief input from the real world,
the world wherein performances are sloppy, ill-timed, irrelevant,
misunderstood, misbegotten, late and early, stumbling, and uncertain,
as well as being intuitive, intelligent, meaningful, careful, skilled,
and cogent. The performance model is also ready and willing to tackle
artistic performance, and, again, I've seen little or no discussion of
art in the memeinthemind model's descriptions and examples, and,
indeed, I still haven't seen any unequivocal examples of a
memeinthemind. Even you, one of the inventors of the popular version of
memetics, dance around meanings and descriptions and explanations about
what it is, where it is, what one can do with it, and what it actually
does. The performance model makes no such equivocations- its meme is
quantifiable and immediate.)
- Wade
25 words or less- The performance model of cultural evolution- venue,
performer, observer. Perform, observe, repeat. But perform first. Sex.
No chicken without the egg.
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