RE: Absolutist memes

From: Paul (paul@dna.ie)
Date: Wed 27 Oct 2004 - 14:07:10 GMT

  • Next message: Scott Chase: "Re: Absolutist memes"

    Thanks for the EP link. I must have been incorrectly informed that EP did not recognise the meme as a replicator, thanks for clearing that up. I know of Dawkins work; I have bought all of his published books and I've read "the selfish gene" and currently reading "the extended phenotype". I've also read Blackmore's "the meme machine" and Aungers
    "electric meme".

    Paul

    -----Original Message----- From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Keith Henson Sent: 27 October 2004 14:42 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: Absolutist memes

    At 10:52 AM 27/10/04 +0100, Paul wrote:

    snip

    [Keith]

    > >The most likely
    > >(grim) outcome is a spasm similar to what happened in Rwanda.
    >
    > >This is my sad prediction based on fundamental evolutionary
    psychology
    > >principles.
    >
    >Very interesting theory, one that make sense giving your explanation.
    >How fundamental are evolutionary psychology principles? I'm not being
    >sarcastic, I just don't know that much about EP and from that I didn't
    >think memetics and EP could co-exist, i.e., were compatible theories.

    This is like saying that computer viruses and computer hardware/ operating systems can't co-exist when the first utterly depends on the second.

    EP looks at the deep evolution of the human line and the genetic adaptions our line made to solve the problems of everyday life and (especially) reproduction to judge the livelihood of some psychological trait being an evolved mental mechanism.

    Memetics deals with the replicating information patterns (memes) that are communicated from one human mind to the next. Like computer viruses, memes take advantage of the deeper hardware and operating systems of the human

    minds they occupy. And like computers, most of the stuff in minds is either helpful or at least harmless. The suicide cult memes represent the harmful extreme.

    Far from being incompatible, memetics and evolutionary psychology are deeply linked.

    For background http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.html

    If you are not up on where evolution has gone in the last 30 years, try Dawkins or Riddley.

    Keith Henson

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    =============================================================== 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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