From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Wed 30 Nov 2005 - 00:36:26 GMT
At 05:56 PM 11/27/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>Most examples of memes seem to be from popular culture.
I have more often used chipping rock or making shoes as
examples. Sometimes used baseball as an example.
>Are
>relatively enduring concepts/terms/ideologies
>like "equality" or "liberty" also memetic,
Ask yourself, are they information? Do they replicate? Do they influence
human behavior?
>and if so, in
>what sense might they function as memes?
Most memes are mundane, like rock chipping or shoe making or frivolous such
as songs and jokes. But there are memes that induce people to die for them
of which "equality," "liberty" and whatever drives the suicide bombers in
Iraq are examples.
"The songs of whales and birds and a number of primate skills such as
cracking nuts or fishing for termites fit the definition of memes, so they
are not unique to humans. But the *influence* of memes on humans is
unique. People often *die* due to the influence of memes."
>Thanks for any insight,
best wishes.
Keith Henson
===============================================================
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 archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed 30 Nov 2005 - 00:54:50 GMT