From: Lawrence deBivort (debivort@umd5.umd.edu)
Date: Tue 27 Jul 2004 - 21:44:54 GMT
Hi, Gene,
Our definition of meme is non-standard: it is a 'idea, languaged in such a
way that gives its expression self-disseminating and self-protecting
properties. We look at these on a technical level. I say non-standard
because we are not concerned with how these memes, or ideas generally,
operate within the brain; for better or worse, we are not concerned with
brain operations which is where some of the more standard definitions come
from, echoing Dawkins' interests. We are mostly interested in cognition and
language.
The study I referred to is for a group of clients and unfortunately the
dissemination of results will be entirely up to them.
For what it's worth, I have integrated the linguistic analysis with a model
I developed on conflict dynamics, and found a pretty good fit between the
two. There is a lot of promising work to be done in these fields.
There has been recent discussion of the lowering of attention paid to
memetics. Personally, I find this to be a good thing, as memetics attracted
some people for the wrong reasons, including a momentary onset of hype and
drama. If we have moved beyond that, so much the better.
The 'war on terror' and Iraq themes were difficult to discuss on this list,
as several of us had strong views. This led to some strong and fruitless
argumentation, which overshadowed some very interesting ideas and points
about memetics per se that were shared among some members on the list. I
still think that the topics provide truly superb subjects for memetic
research, in part because the topics required such attention to expression
of the conflicting PoVs, and because there was a test -- reality -- that was
always running in the background. How the memes of the various parties
shifted as reality evolved has been one of the very interesting things to
watch and analyze.
Thanks for the prod, Simon and Gene. It has been some time since I've posted
here!
Lawry
-----Original Message-----
From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
Gene Doty
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 12:31 PM
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: testing 1,2,3..
On Tuesday 27 July 2004 09:07, Lawrence deBivort wrote:
> Indeed.
>
> We've been in the midst of updating our study of the memes used in the
'war
> on terror.' Quite a bit of analysis, as the meme wars are in full stride,
> with the attempt by the US administration to link those with their memes
on
> the invasion of Iraq.
>
> Cheers,
> Lawry
>
Or would that be the invade-Iraq memes trying to link up with the
war-on-terror memes? I ask because I'm still trying to grasp how to think
and
talk about memes.
I'm interested in seeing your study; can you tell me where or when it will
be
available?
-- Gene Doty http://www.umr.edu/~gdoty http://www.ghazalpage.net =============================================================== 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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