Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA04707 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 4 Feb 2001 18:12:28 GMT X-Originating-IP: [209.240.222.130] From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: memetics and ingenuity Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 13:09:49 -0500 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F86OptzzpYEzJcZikaT00000d27@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 04 Feb 2001 18:09:49.0208 (UTC) FILETIME=[A9AA9180:01C08ED5] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
>Subject: RE: memetics and ingenuity
>Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2001 12:12:42 -0000
>
>Hi Barak,
>
>Welcome to the list.
>
>High school essays on memetics, eh? Can I ask what class that's for?
>
>As to reading, it depends partly on the requirements of the assignment, and
>the resources available to you. Obviously use the online journal, and
>particularly check the bibliographies of articles, because there are a fair
>few websites out there that many of the authors run themselves that you'll
>get the addresses for. Even if the content of particular articles don't
>help you, you should see from them the key works that people always cite
>when discussing memetics, not least Richard Dawkins' 'The Selfish Gene'
>(1976) which coined the term (but then I bet you knew of that one).
>
>Check through the archives of this discussion list also, it's jammed full
>of
>references to all sorts of topics, but not least references to articles
>(many online) and books specifically about memetics.
>
>
Aren't things like insight and serendipity important in ingenuity? There's
the ability to think outside the box. The Gouldian notion of exaptation is
almost apt itself, at least in that ideas that were important in one sense
could be co-opted later and put to a different use.
Serendipity associates with the discovery of penicillin IIRC. I can't recall
the exact chain of events. The jist was that Fleming was looking at one
problem and stumbled upon something else by accident. Maybe Derek Gatherer
could help. I guess ingenuity would involve the ability to develop an
accidental serendipitous discovery into something useful or revolutionary.
If someone had the insight to put seemingly unrelated ideas together into a
novel combination, they could capitalize on an accidental discovery.
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