From: Lawrence DeBivort (debivort@umd5.umd.edu)
Date: Wed 18 Jun 2003 - 02:59:49 GMT
Wade said:
> Replication, mutation, and selection.>>
Richard said:
> There is no replication because you have similar, not identical,
> performances. Replication means identical. The four-note motif, on a
> relative scale, is the most identifiable meme in Beethoven's Fifth. Your
> "observational tests" depend upon memes in the minds of the
> observers. Also,
> culture evolves in many other ways besides observers becoming
> performers. A
> reader of "Taming of the Shrew" may write a musical version which is then
> performed by an entirely different set of people who read the book. Also,
> you have far too much of your mechanism in your vague, all-encompassing
> "venue", which may as well be God for all its scientific usefulness.
>
> You are essentially saying that, given time and a culture, people will
> behave similarly to the way they've seen others behave, but different. You
> in no way explain these differences or predict direction. It's
> not a model.
In our view of memetic dissemination, the replication need not, and will
rarely be identical. Yet we call it memetic and this view seems to work well
in our work.
Why is dissemination nor identical? Because each person (or group of people,
for we also think of memes as being able to disseminate to and through
groups) will have his own criteria for acceptance which may require some
modification of the meme prior to acceptance. So as they disseminate, memes
also tend to mutate. The 'power' of the meme lies in part in its ability to
withstand such mutation, i.e. to be accepted whole and as close to
identically by the recipient.
Notwithstanding this lack of identical dissemination, prediction of
acceptance is possible, particularly if one can also model the acceptance
criteria of the recipient. Such modeling is possible, but we do not consider
the methods for doing so to be part of the field of memetics.
Does this fit with your thinking, Richard? Wade? Others?
Cheers,
Lawry
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