From: Richard Brodie (richard@brodietech.com)
Date: Fri 27 Feb 2004 - 19:58:54 GMT
Ted Dace wrote:
> In memetics, what the
> fundamentalists maintain is that cultural evolution is a
> mechanical process reducible to memes. This view follows
> from the recognition that cultural evolution proceeds much
> more quickly than natural evolution and therefore can't be
> explained by genetic mutation. The "problem of culture" is
> thus "solved" by reducing culture to the blind, mechanical
> evolution of gene-like memes. In mechanizing human culture,
> the purist form of memetics becomes, not simply a science of
> culture, but *the answer* to all questions cultural. No need
> to posit anything human, like love, for example, which is
> reduced to the imperative of obtaining attention as well as
> the tactics of manipulating people by lavishing attention on
> them and promoting one's genes by assisting close relatives.
> Mechanization resolves all issues according to a simple
> formula. "Survival of the fittest" becomes as worn out and
> meaningless as "Jesus saves." Meanwhile, those who raise
> objections become taboo and are denounced as "wacky" or
> simply ignored.
That's a great description of "memetics fundamentalist." But who are these
people? I don't think I've ever met one. Everyone I know who understands
memetics also understands that it is simply one of many useful models for
explaining the past and predicting the future.
Richard Brodie
www.memecentral.com
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