Defining and moving on

From: Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Date: Wed Oct 25 2000 - 21:15:27 BST

  • Next message: William Benzon: "Re: Defining and moving on" 

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From: "Tim Rhodes" <proftim@speakeasy.org>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: Defining and moving on
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 13:15:27 -0700
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    William Benzon wrote:

    <<<If you don't have a grasp of the data to be accounted for nor of the
    causal processes and mechanisms, then you just haggle over definitions.
    In my experience, serious thinkers don't waste time over definitions.
    Where the issues are well understood, thinkers may give definitions by
    way of indicating which (among several well-known) position they
    take.>>>

    I have the sense that most of us are using the same concepts, but under
    different names. There are many reasons for this (and too many of them
    are surprisingly petty or political), but I think it could be a useful
    exercise to lay out all the differing terms and compare them. I suspect
    we'll find we share more concepts more in common than we disagree.

    So here's a start, I call:

    A) the external vehicle by which memetic information is passed: the
    G-meme.
    B) the internal information necessary for propagating the cultural
    information: the L-meme.
    C) the combination of internal and external that results in
    replication: the meme

    I've seen (A) referred to by others as: the meme seed, the vehicle, the
    meme, the memetic artifact and several other terms. What term do you
    use for this concept?

    I've seen (B) referred to as: copying instructions, the meme,
    memes-in-the-mind, etc. What term do you use for this concept?

    I've also seen (C) referred to as: self-replicating mind viruses,
    memeplexes, the meme, etc. What term do you use for this concept?

    Lets build a list of overlapping terms, recognize what each other means
    by them, and then get this show on the road.

    -Tim Rhodes

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