Re: reading a book

From: Chris Taylor (christ@ebi.ac.uk)
Date: Tue 26 Apr 2005 - 20:09:40 GMT

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    Is all this more akin to horizontally transferring a few extra genes to an E.coli strain to make it into a killer, rather than getting a brand new killer strain de novo?

    Bill Spight wrote:
    > Dear Kate,
    >
    >>> Well, what the trumpet player said was a hint. While that triplet
    >>> pattern is associated with swing, there are plenty of other
    >>> swinging patterns (if you will), and, even more importantly, I
    >>> could have played that pattern without swing. The performance as a
    >>> whole might not have flopped, but I would have. Anyway, a hint is
    >>> not a representation.
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> What the trumpet player said may not have fed directly into how you
    >> then behaved, but he did nonetheless impart *some* information to
    >> you. His words represented some information.
    >
    >
    > Yes. But as I said, to the extent that it was a description of swing, it
    > was a thin description.
    >
    >> What you did with that
    >> information might not have been what he intended but that doesn't
    >> mean it wasn't a representation in the first place.
    >
    >
    > Well, since he intended something different from what he said, it's hard
    > to say that what he said represented what he intended to transmit. And
    > what he did transmit. I misspoke. A hint can be a representation, but
    > not a representation of what is hinted at. That's what I had in mind.
    >
    > I'm not saying that what he said is not memetic. I'm saying that what he
    > didn't say was the key cultural transmission. To be sure, for me to be
    > able to take the hint required some experience, skill, and sensibility.
    > But I had those already. Something else was transmitted, something
    > unspoken, and, I submit, unrepresented.
    >
    > Best,
    >
    > Bill
    >
    > ===============================================================
    > 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
    >
    >

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


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