From: Richard Brodie (richard@brodietech.com)
Date: Thu 04 May 2006 - 23:16:03 GMT
Chris Taylor wrote:
<<There is no such thing as a meme per se, it is just a useful approximation
for (the result of) a patterning process.>>
There is no such thing as anything per se. We put labels on pieces of the
universe, or concepts, so we can talk about them. It is impossible to get
memetics if you believe there really is such a thing as a mountain.
<<So if we're just talking about generalities, then yes the hitting a ball
with a stick 'meme' can jump, sort of, but is that a baseball meme? No. If
we want to get detailed, then we have to go with Kate -- an _ana_logous
thing can be constructed, and the more carefully the selection criteria are
expressed (rule books, examples, coaching) the closer the approximation, but
the baseball 'meme' most probably doesn't even exist.>>
And yet the game is played in much the same way all over the place every
summer. And trust me, as a 10-year umpire: most players, coaches, and fans
have never read the rulebook.
<<Replication is a specific thing; what has been described is not that -- it
is the control of an environment such that it favours convergent
evolution.>>
You are looking for a double helix?
Any mechanism that results in another mind having a copy of the meme will
work. We're not picky.
Richard Brodie
www.memecentral.com
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