Re: meme as catalytic indexical

From: M Lissack (lissacktravel@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu 22 Jan 2004 - 01:08:37 GMT

  • Next message: Keith Henson: "Re: meme as catalytic indexical"

    Ted:
      Questions of cause and prediction are shifted from the memes to the environmental niches of which they are a semiotic sign. There exists a huge literature on causation and prediction regrading environmental interactions at the level of niches and agents. The shift to meme as catalytic indexical means we not only look to the environmental niche but also to the functionality of the meme as a catalyst and to its carrying capacity as an indexical. Both carrying capacity and catalytic fuction can be studied and statistically examined. Replication and resilience become characterizations of the environmental niche not of the meme. The environmental niche embodies a much richer set of variables than does the meme. Thus, we can look at resources, energy flow, constraints, external and internal pressures, life and death cycles and rates, competition, cooperation etc.
     

    Dace <edace@earthlink.net> wrote: M. Lissack,

    > the question is do memes replicate or are they the semiotic sign of
    > something else that replicates?
    > if they do not directly replicate then we can instead consider their role
    as
    > catalysts which effect the success, resilience, and replication of the
    things of
    > which the memes are semiotic signs
    > memes as replicators has been a marvelous way to talk about memes but
    > not a useful approach for research or prediction (thus Bruce's three
    > challenges)
    > if memetics can meet Bruce's challenges without a redefinition great -- i
    do
    > not believe it can and so have offered an alternative

    Can you explain how substituting memes-as-replicators with memes-as-signs of replicators enables causal explanation and prediction?

    I've read the article, and it's just not clear to me.

    Thanks.

    Ted Dace

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