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----- Original Message -----
From: Vincent Campbell
To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2001 3:19 PM
Subject: RE: DNA Culture .... Trivia?
Hi Dini,
Welcome to the list
Thank you, glad to be here..
I think it is important to recognise that whilst memes may influence genes over long periods of time, they do not become them.
I am fully aware of that. It is my fault entirely if I gave you the impression that that was what I thought. Far from it.
Derek's work on the origins of religion relates to a discussion we often return to regarding religions and belief, and whether or not they are memetic. Derek's apparent finding that there is a strong relationship between the mode of food acquisition and monotheism is interesting in and of itself, but it also shows the distinction between a gene and a meme.
That sounds as if Derek wrote either a book or a paper of the subject. I would love to read that as I can see there is still a lot to learn for me about memetics.
Despite what some people may feel, no-one is born to drink
beer... (save perhaps darts players :-)).
LOL
. . . . . . whereas people cannot agree on what a neural meme is constituted of, or even if such a thing exists.
I understood it to be part of our metaphysical body. or other self.
. . . . . the point is genes and memes are distinct even if
they influence each other. Despite many generations of faithful following, people have to deliberately teach their children to follow their faith. [One thing that annoys me that people often say something like "I was born (insert your chosen faith here)", as if particular faiths were encoded into our DNA]
Vincent
Thank you for your explicit letter, which has opened many new avenues for me to explore. There obviously is a lot more to this gene and meme business than I originally thought.
Best wishes,
Dini
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