RE: Labels for memes

From: TJ Olney (market@cc.wwu.edu)
Date: Wed Jan 31 2001 - 00:26:09 GMT

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Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 16:26:09 -0800 (Pacific Standard Time)
From: TJ Olney <market@cc.wwu.edu>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: RE: Labels for memes
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    On Tue, 30 Jan 2001, Richard Brodie wrote:

    > Robin,
    > << Where information is transmitted, that information is _not_
    > normally seen as existing only at each end of the transmission chain.
    > In fact, to do so is incoherent. No matter how complex its encoding, it
    > exists throughout the chain (at some point in time). It _has_ to do so,
    > in order to make it from one end to the other.>>
    >
    > The information has to exist, but not the meme. The meme stays right in the
    > head of the ad exec for Budweiser. He pays someone to do a TV commercial, it
    > gets broadcast, information gets transmitted, and suddenly a million new
    > copies of the "Wazzuuuuup?" meme get created in new minds.
    >

    OK, I'm with you here, but why is not the encoded message a meme? I'm
    getting a picture of trancription RNA as opposed to DNA. The original
    meme gets encoded into the commercial. The commercial gets encoded into a
    stream of data. The stream of data gets decoded using a matching reverse
    process into the commercial again. The viewer watches the commercial.
    To the extent that the viewer has the memetic configuration that 1)
    enables "getting" the meme (decoding as intended) and 2) does not to
    reject the meme, then the meme has replicated in the viewers mind.

    Is that the story? Or am I off?

    TJ Olney

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