RE: Who knew genes could get mean?

From: Gatherer, D. (Derek) (D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl)
Date: Wed Dec 20 2000 - 11:38:37 GMT

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    From: "Gatherer, D. (Derek)" <D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl>
    To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    Subject: RE: Who knew genes could get mean?
    Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2000 12:38:37 +0100
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    Derek:
    I don't understand. How can an instinct be a meme? Memes have to be
    cultural in some way (regardless of which school of what-is-a-meme you
    belong to). Instincts surely can't be cultural without a total redefinition
    of what an instinct is. I think you are implying that Lorenz was wrong
    about instincts, but if so, why?

     Misy:

    I keep asking myself the question; "What selective advantage do we have with
    this ability to spread memes?"
     
    Derek:
    Or in other words, what selective advantage is obtained by the ability to
    communicate through language etc. This would seem to be self evident.
     
    Misy:
    The answer may lend insight to the current state of affairs, and therefore
    allow extrapolation to the past and progenitorial memes eg. instincts.
    This might be something equivalent to the nut of an idea. Much akin to the
    adenosine groups still present in most biological cofactors. Or the ferrous
    iron in heme groups. An essential ingredient that was built upon to yield
    the present form, but was never capable of being lost during the process.
    This kernel of a thought has grown or been covered over. Germination of an
    idea such that it's presence in the forest of the here and now lends
    credence to its ancestral prowess.
    Evolution of thought is the concept, and therefore, most importantly the
    selective advantage conferred through the possession of a given idea, or
    thought, and those instincts that they may have evolved from?

     Derek:
    No sorry, don't understand this at all. How do you propose that instincts
    are cultural? If you can't answer that then surely you have to admit that
    instincts are not memes.

      

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