RE: Now They're Singing a Different Song

From: Vincent Campbell (v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Jan 22 2001 - 11:50:04 GMT

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    From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk>
    To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    Subject: RE: Now They're Singing a Different Song
    Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 11:50:04 -0000
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    If it's been discussed at length here, already, I won't pursue it, but I
    doubt the argument's been entirely resolved. If so are there any published
    works that outline what that resolution might be, that you know of?

    Vincent

    > ----------
    > From: Robin Faichney
    > Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Sent: Friday, January 19, 2001 1:25 pm
    > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Subject: Re: Now They're Singing a Different Song
    >
    > On Fri, Jan 19, 2001 at 12:40:11PM -0000, Vincent Campbell wrote:
    > > This does depend on whether one sees bird-song as memetic though.
    >
    > Obviously.
    >
    > > Some birds, e.g. cuckoos or cow birds, have their songs hard wired-
    > they'd
    > > have to otherwise they'd never be able to recognise another cuckoo after
    > > they've left the nest. Others have very varied songs- there's that one
    > that
    > > attracts a mate by imitating lots of other animal noises (and alos
    > copies
    > > the sound of chainsaws of logging companies!) but I forget what that
    > one's
    > > called.
    > >
    > > That some species have variances between individuals, and geographical
    > > varied communities sing different songs, doesn't have to be cultural.
    > Song,
    > > is undoubtedly a major factor in many birds' reproductive potential,
    > which
    > > suggests to me that there's a strong genetic leash in there somewhere.
    > >
    > > What needs to be shown, for a memetic component, is that variances in
    > songs
    > > between the varied communitites, is a product of imitation (or learning)
    > > rather than inheritance or environment.
    >
    > And why do you assume that hasn't been done?
    >
    > This has been discussed before here ad nauseam. I'll leave it to
    > those as yet un-nauseated to pursue it further.
    >
    > --
    > Robin Faichney
    > robin@reborntechnology.co.uk
    >
    > ===============================================================
    > 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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