Re: reading a book

From: Chris Taylor (christ@ebi.ac.uk)
Date: Tue 26 Apr 2005 - 14:28:40 GMT

  • Next message: Bill Spight: "Re: reading a book"

    Hi.

    > What isn't so obvious is why memes that are of no or negative survival
    > value sometimes do well. I believe I know, having been induced to
    > figure it out by experiences that can't be recommended.

    I know where you were going with this, but I'd like to take it in some different directions. Firstly, if the unit of selection is the meme, then it is only the likelihood of replication rather than its effect as part of an ensemble on the fitness of the environment (host) that matters.

    And it has been demonstrated in a published model that copying good and bad without discriminating still favours copying ability over the long term. Partly cos the ability to become pseudo-Lamarckian is really great, and partly cos bad memes do tend to die with their unfortunate host (slightly at odds with the above but only slightly).

    Cheers, Chris.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      Chris Taylor (christ@ebi.ac.uk)
      HUPO PSI: GPS -- psidev.sf.net
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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