From: Lawrence DeBivort (debivort@umd5.umd.edu)
Date: Tue 05 Aug 2003 - 15:47:18 GMT
I wonder whether there is confusing arising from Dawkins' terminology?
A "replicator" should be the thing that is doing the replication, and not
that thing that is being replicated.
The thing that is being replicated should be called a "REPLICATEE", and the
thing doing the replication should be called the "REPLICATOR" -- this
reflects standard subject/object usage, unless I am mistaken.
Does this help?
Cheers,
Lawry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
> Of AaronLynch@aol.com
> Sent: Tue, August 05, 2003 11:22 AM
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: Defining the word "replicator" (was Re: Silent memes)
>
>
> In a message dated 8/5/2003 4:52:47 AM Central Daylight
> Time, Derek Gatherer dgatherer2002@yahoo.co.uk writes:
>
> > --- AaronLynch@aol.com wrote: > In a message dated
> >
> > > do please
> > > quote that
> > > definition verbatim in its entirety, again with
> > > source and
> > > page numbers.
> >
> > You're looking for something along the lines of:
> >
> > REPLICATOR: noun, c.1976. An entity which ...... and
> > is further defined by.....
> >
> > in the space of a paragraph or so. I doubt if you'll
> > find anything like that, as it isn't the style of the
> > biology literature to provide that kind of thing - too
> > many exceptions, too messy a subject. There is a
> > secondary literature, eg. the Penguin Dictionary of
> > Biology, where you can look up definitions, but these
> > are designed for first-year students to get to grips
> > with the terminology, rather than being any 'official'
> > definitions.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Biology is indeed a messier subject than physics or maths,
> so I agree that I should not expect all the exactitude I
> would find in those fields.
>
> Dawkins seems to have already considered the first-year
> students and other members of his wider audience, and
> provided a glossary at the end of his book _The Extended
> Phenotype_. The full entry for the word "replicator" reads:
>
> "REPLICATOR: Any entity in the universe of which copies are
> made. Chapter 5 contains an extended discussion of
> replicators, and a classification of active/passive, and
> germ-line/dead-end replicators." (p. 293)
>
> His definition is very broad, extending beyond biology and
> into other fields such as the social sciences and indeed,
> even into physics.
>
> --Aaron Lynch
>
> Thought Contagion Science Page:
> http://www.thoughtcontagion.com
>
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