Re: phenotypic plasticity and ontogeny

From: Joe E. Dees (joedees@bellsouth.net)
Date: Sun Jan 21 2001 - 04:06:05 GMT

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    From: "Joe E. Dees" <joedees@bellsouth.net>
    To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    Date: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 22:06:05 -0600
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    Subject: Re: phenotypic plasticity and ontogeny
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    Subject: Re: phenotypic plasticity and ontogeny
    Date sent: Sat, 20 Jan 2001 22:26:32 -0500
    From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
    To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
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    > 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.
    >
    Meme as sperm, ayy? That's why I highlighted disSEMINate. But
    I was speaking of the roles of propagator and recipient; clearly
    there is a yang/yin complementarity there. However, as regards
    the meme, what's IN sperm? Why, GENES, of course. In sexual
    coition, some of the genes from one person are, if they are
    favorably received, placed in the other person, where they combine
    with some of the genes from the other to create a new entity. In
    memetic transfer, some of the memes from one person are
    communicated to another, and if they are favorably received, they
    become part of the memeplexure (all the memes and memeplexes)
    of the recipient, and adapt and are adapted to fit a niche within that
    gestalt, by means of mutual accommodation and assimilation to
    modify an already existing entity.
    >
    > 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
    >
    > ===============================================================
    > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    > Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    > For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
    >
    >

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    This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit



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