Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA11094 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 21 Jan 2001 03:29:23 GMT Subject: Re: phenotypic plasticity and ontogeny Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 22:26:32 -0500 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20010121032450.AAA7465@camailp.harvard.edu@[204.96.32.163]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hi Joe E. Dees --
>> Does that sound enough like memetic sex for you?
>>
>The propagators or distributors (disSEMINators) of memes could
>be viewed to be the 'male' side, and those prospective candidate
>recipients who select, for whatever reason, to accept or reject them
>could be viewed as the 'female' side.
Any reason for the femaleness in reference to memes, uh, at all? Not that
I dislike taking sides, I'm usually for the underdog in all contests,
and, not to undermine the dichotomous level of the whole yin/yang thing,
but, I'm more and more not seeing any reason to give anything but 'male'
properties to memes, which I also now see as not being needed _at all_ on
the receiving end. The memetic action is the insertion of the unit of
self, and the meme (-plex) is the special cultural meaning given to the
unit by the behavior. That the unit projected by the meme is
taken/received/birthed at all is a function not of a memetic co-process,
but of self-burdened human nature as it is and as it is environed.
Otherwise, those kinds of people who are born every minute wouldn't be
noticeable (and buying homeopathic nostrums, or accepting or rejecting
flowers....)
And Mark's example was nice, but, almost too literal, yes? I see the
analogy as much more general. Memetic sex is all around us, even here,
right now, in the way I phrase this email.
It is the true cybersex....
- Wade
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