From: Mogens Olesen (motor@olesen.mail.dk)
Date: Sat 15 Apr 2006 - 16:34:44 GMT
Regarding whether the media substrate is neutral or not, there is an entire
branch within Media Studies, which argues that it isn’t neutral. I’m talking
about the Medium Theory school, normally connected to Marshall McLuhan who
famously proclaimed that “the medium is the message”, that is: the choice of
medium is actually more important for our way of life than whichever content
it transmits. I think there is a lot of truth to that although it is stated
in a rather extreme fashion – which is typical of McLuhan’s probing style.
Taking a meme’s eye view, it certainly matters whether it is transmitted by
e.g. a book or internet. It’s all about the replication ability of the
transmitter. Therefore, I’m not sure whether we should distinguish sharply
between a meme in a human brain and a virus in a computer – both are “units
of cultural transmission” (Dawkins’ definition of a meme). The difference is
rather the degree of human involvement, which is – at best – indirect in the
case of computer viruses. It could be – as for instance Aunger points out –
that we are witnessing an evolution of memes developing/selecting towards
ever better replicators for themselves. This evolution takes them away from
their human origin towards information technology that holds more
replication potential.
Well, just some thought on an Easter Saturday…
All the best,
Mogens
_____
Fra: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk] På vegne af
Kate Distin
Sendt: 15. april 2006 11:39
Til: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Emne: Re: Robert Aunger essay
Robin Faichney wrote:
Friday, April 14, 2006, 9:47:52 PM, Scott wrote:
Do the provcesses of reading versus listening have any
effects on the way content is apprehended by the receiver? Are the
substrates truly neutral?
Not sure what you have in mind there, but I'd insist that the book and
the (unedited) tape or CD of someone reading it contain the same
information, even though the medium might have various effects on the
memetic propagation. I suppose it's a matter of degree, though, when
the total packages -- content plus medium effects -- are compared.
Maybe book and CD are 98% the same? Also, I think it's important to
distinguish between effects on the individuals encountering the
packages on one hand from distribution differentials on the other. I'd
guess medium has more effect on the latter than the former.
The substrate is not neutral. It has an impact in all sorts of ways - some
media are not as good as others at long-term preservation, some cannot hold
information with the same accuracy as others (CD vs. vinyl) and some as you
say have a different impact on individuals encountering the information -
but as you emphasise this doesn't mean that [almost] the same information
cannot be preserved in each.
Kate
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