From: Van oost Kenneth (kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Mon 23 Jun 2003 - 12:21:02 GMT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lawrence DeBivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu>
> 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.
Hi Lawrence,
Maybe you look at the wrong markers !
It could very easily be the other way round, that the power of the meme
lies just in its ability to mutate, sligh off target each time, the same but
different. Don 't forget the time/ space diffirentials, the influence of the
environment, manipulation ( inducing itself so that other memes go one
direction without ' knowing ' how they went on that road), etc....
Not withstanding mutation would at least IMO explain the rate of the
memes' dissemination and why they replicate so fast within any structure.
The influence of the cultural/ social venue, to keep performances going,
and thus maintain itself along the way, is the motor behind the mutations.
If culture, like we all seem to accept, evolves it needs those to go on
furher.
Regards,
Kenneth
===============================================================
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 archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Mon 23 Jun 2003 - 12:28:09 GMT