Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA27473 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 18 Jan 2001 12:19:33 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745BE3@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: DNA Culture .... Trivia? Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 12:18:04 -0000 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
<...There can be no such thing as an
> absolutely isolated meaning.>
>
Sorry to strip out your other comments (which I take on board and
concur with). I see there are also quite a lot of posts so I don't want to
say too much in case I reproduce someone else's comments.
I guess maybe I'm taking a pedantic line, since this I absolutely
agree with the sentence above, but what I was questioning whether you could
call something 'information', without a context to give it meaning. It was
in that sense that I felt talking about meaningful information might be
tautological.
<Actually, the fact that memes must both reside in minds and pass
> between them stands whether or not you accept the definition of
> meaningful information, although it is hard to see how
> meaninglessness could propagate.>
>
The effects of memes must include effects on people's minds, but
that doesn't mean they reside/inhabit people's minds. The question of
meaningless propagation is interesting because, of course, from certain
perspectives meaningless things do propagate e.g. wearing baseball caps back
to front. Also the issue of signification rises in such cases- for those
people who started wearing their baseball hats back to front, what triggered
it? and what caused others to follow whoever initiated it?
So, the question is, signification, or meaningfulness is fine, but
what shapes the things that become meaningful at any given time, or in other
words, what turns an idea or piece of information into a 'meme'?
Vincent
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