From: Chris Taylor (christ@ebi.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 17 May 2004 - 09:03:28 GMT
> Memes interacted with the human line, making those hominids who could
> learn the memes more likely to reproduce and to obtain the high energy
> foods needed to support the energy hungry hardware of a large brain. A
> computer model going back to the origins of culture would have to
> include two levels of evolution where both memes *and* genes for better
> meme capacity would be influencing each others reproduction.
Like this'un (fyi): The mimetic transition: a simulation study of the
evolution of learning by imitation. Higgs PG. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol
Sci. 2000 Jul 7; 267(1450): 1355-61
http://pmbrowser.info/pmdisplay.cgi?issn=09628452&uids=10972132
> As some of you are aware, my interest has largely switched from memes to
> a larger problem; the brain's gene based switches that change biases in
> human behavior, particularly in the propagation of memes. There is an
> observed coupling between hard economic times and the spread of
> xenophobic memes. The logic of how that mechanism came to be selected
> and its current day application is profoundly disturbing. There are
> days when I feel like someone who (by some strange flash of insight) has
> discovered physics *after* seeing people who are completely unaware fall
> off a cliff.
I just don't get why this has to be genetically wired-in. I can see how
some mid-brain fear centre might become overactive in hard times, but I
don't see how this mechanism would stay selected-for when the
pure-memetic version suffices to explain everything IMHO (when times are
hard you're generally more tight-fisted, but tend to be less so with
family, familiar people, and even your pets perhaps...).
Cheers, Chris.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chris Taylor (christ@ebi.ac.uk)
HUPO PSI: GPS -- psidev.sf.net
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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