Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id RAA27624 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 9 Jan 2001 17:57:27 GMT Message-Id: <5.0.2.1.0.20010109112458.02119ac0@pop3.htcomp.net> X-Sender: mmills@pop3.htcomp.net X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.0.2 Date: Tue, 09 Jan 2001 11:44:02 -0600 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Mark Mills <mmills@htcomp.net> Subject: Re: DNA Culture .... Trivia? In-Reply-To: <000901c07a55$ab7eda00$cc90ef9b@Intekom5001> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dini,
At 01:40 PM 1/9/01 +0200, you wrote:
>To me, genes are genes and memes are memes. I almost see the memes as the
>esoteric equivalent of genes, but NOT tied together, like the two are a
>duality.
That's subject to continual debate here. The Lynch-meme (or neual meme)
crowd likes a firm analogy between gene and meme. The Gatherer-meme
(no-substrate meme) crowd dislikes being bound to a genetic analogy,
despite the simile (gene-meme) and various references to the gene-meme
relationship in Dawkins and earlier. Dawkins, by the way, leaves it
unclear which (substrate determined or substrate free) he was talking about.
>Genes get transferred the 'normal' way through reproduction, while I
>understand that memes, which are totally non-physical, get transferred
>from person to person, when people have mental contact with one another.
Sounds like you have started out with a Gatherer-meme understanding. I
understand the logic, but think we would be better off with the substrate
based Lynch-meme. As it stands, the substrate-free definition makes it
very hard to collect empirical data. Empirical data is minimum
requirement for starting a scientific study.
What empirical advantage can you describe for the substrate-free meme?
Mark
http://www.htcomp.net/markmills
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