From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Tue 27 Jan 2004 - 15:46:19 GMT
At 08:33 PM 26/01/04 -0500, Scott wrote:
><Keith>
>
>>So from usage memetics comes out ahead by on the order of 100 to one (at
>>this time).
snip
>What sort of criterion is hits on google beyond being a popularity
>contest? Does popularity translate to validity?
In matter of this sort, yes. If you use the more common word where there
are equal choices your message is more likely to be understood.
For example, "culturgen" has the exact same meaning as meme.
Lecture 14 – Culture and Evolution
... Culture consists of bits of information sometimes called culturgens.
· Culturgens can be spread both horizontally and vertically ...
www.wsu.edu/~jrasic/lec14.htm - 63k - Cached - Similar pages
culturgen OR culturgens gets 280 hits. Adding meme only cuts the hits to
194, indicating that most uses are in the context of discussing its similar
meaning. In spite of the prestige of the coiners of "culturgen" it came in
a distant second to meme.
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/g/e/gec7/Memes.pdf
"A substantial part of the concern over the units of cultural transmission
derives from
analogies made between cultural evolution and biological evolution. Though
the unit of
selection in biological evolution is still hotly debated (some choosing the
gene, most
preferring the individual, and a few still holding out for the group), many
researchers
interested in cultural evolution have seen the need to adopt a particulate
unit of cultural
transmission that is analogous to the gene. Hence, in recent years, several
have been
proposed. The most notable of these include Lumsden and Wilson’s (1981)
“culturgen”
and the “meme,” originally proposed by Dawkins (1976). Of these two, the
“meme” has
apparently has been “selected.” Durham (1991), for example, has adopted it
as the unit of
cultural transmission in his theory of coevolution while several
individuals outside of
anthropology (e.g., Blackmore 1999; Dennett 1991, 1995; Lynch 1996) have
embraced the
notion with few apparent misgivings. Some have even proposed a new field of
“memetics”
(e.g., Lynch 1996; Blackmore 1998). Wilson (1998) has abandoned his “culturgen”
construct and adopted the meme, although his definition of it differs in
significant ways
from definitions proposed by others."
In spite of *Dawkin's* preference for "memics," "memetics" (first suggested
by Arel Lucas--my wife--to Douglas Hofstadter after his 1983 Scientific
American column) has won out in the cultural selection
process. Speculation as to why would be interesting, the term's obvious
mental resonance pairing with "genetics" may be a factor.
Keith Henson
===============================================================
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