Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA17508 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 6 Feb 2001 19:06:17 GMT From: <joedees@bellsouth.net> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2001 13:09:50 -0600 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: Darwinian evolution vs memetic evolution Message-ID: <3A7FF79E.32500.380DBC5@localhost> In-reply-to: <3A803A7F.1FCB3AF3@pacbell.net> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12c) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 6 Feb 2001, at 9:55, Bill Spight wrote:
> Dear Able,
>
> > I would say that the essential difference between Darwinian
> > evolution
> > and the evolution of memes is that in Genetic evolution there is no
> > conscious choice by the participating players (the subjects who are
> > evolving) while there is definitely conscious or subconscious
> > involved choosing whether a meme is imitated or for that matter
> > whether a new meme is created, sort of Lamarckian so to say.
>
> But in memetic evolution the evolving entities (memes) do not engage
> in conscious or subconscious choice, either. Human beings make choices
> that affect the survivability and replicability of memes. The role of
> memes in those choices is an interesting question, but the memes
> themselves do not exercise choice.
>
People choose a lot of the memes they choose to accept and
reject for their own benefit, and none for the memes' benefit.
Human culture is not running a meme charity. Some memes fly in
under the radar, and are inadvertently or subliminally absorbed.
But we make the comprehensive absorption of valued others
among our most cherished goals, as we do the continual rejection
of despised memes. We imperfectly yet pretty well can filter the
virulents from the symbionts once we have a modicum of
experience in the world and learn the Bad Tricks (with apologies to
Daniel Dennett), which is why so many memeplexes, particularly
religious, political, racial, and gender biases and prejudices, have
evolved subcomponents which influence parents to infect their kids
before resistance can set in.
>
> I agree that memetic evolution is Lamarckian, because environmental
> changes are passed on by imitation. In Dawinian evolution the germ
> line is protected from the environment (except for cosmic rays and
> such) in a way that is not the case with memes.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Bill
>
> ===============================================================
> 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
>
>
===============================================================
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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