From: Lawrence DeBivort (debivort@umd5.umd.edu)
Date: Mon 08 Sep 2003 - 23:14:22 GMT
To Jeff Drabble and Brent Scofield,
Welcome to the list. We are usually better than you see us these last days.
The list is focused on memes as natural evolutionary actors, and there is
close attention to the biology of genes and their (metaphorical) analogy to
memes. There are several people on this list who have done solid and
seminal work on these questions. There has also been considerable
discussion of the taxonomy of memes and various types of memes.
Memetic engineering has attracted less attention, and there is a general
feeling that it isn't possible to engineer memes, or if it is, that it is
nothing more than what advertisers already do.
My own personal view is that memetic engineering is possible, and that it is
more than what advertisers do, but that this list, for reasons that you can
anticipate from the caliber of the discussions you have witnessed here, not
the place to do so.
Best regards,
Lawry
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
> Of Jeff Drabble
> Sent: Mon, September 08, 2003 6:22 PM
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: I find it sad yet hilarious...
>
>
> On Mon, 8 Sep 2003 14:32:57 -0700, you:
>
> >
> >I joined this mailing list about a week ago, hoping to first listen in on
> >and then eventually join in discussions surrounding the concept
> of memes and
> >the development on memetics. My problem with your posts is not
> the politics
> >of them, but the vague and undeveloped ways in which you relate your
> >interpretation of current issues to memetics. You do use words like
> >"memebot" and "memeplex" in some of your posts, and while I think new
> >vocabulary is super-fun, I also think you should at very least spend some
> >time with each of your posts relating what makes it relevant to
> this mailing
> >list. The concept that ideas spread is not new to memetics, and if people
> >post every article which contains in it something about the spread of a
> >particular idea or the development of an idea, or the definition
> of an idea,
> >etc., then this list will be innundated with links to articles
> and peices of
> >articles.
>
> I also subscribed about a week ago and was about to unsubscribe for
> these very reasons. I often look forward to a television show coming
> that purports to further our understanding of some scientific issue
> and am usually very disappointed by the hollow, surface-scratching,
> results-rather-than-causes presentations which emerge (doesn't stop me
> watching in hope for the odd gem, though).
>
> As I started to read what was posted to this list I was rapidly
> getting the feeling that the same thing was happening here. I'll now
> stay a little longer to see what emerges. So far, people just seem to
> be taking positions, which, to me, is as far as you can get from
> scientific discovery and the propagation of ideas from the results of
> that discovery.
>
> There should be a lot more questions and fewer people who are adamant
> that their take is the real deal. In my experience finding the answer
> to a question opens up ten more, equally perplexing and interesting
> questions. Those who just dish out the "answers" are as close-minded
> as those who grasp at religion to steady their anxiety about the world
> and their place in it.
>
> Jeff Drabble
>
>
> ===============================================================
> 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 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
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