RE: Darwinian evolution vs memetic evolution

From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Feb 10 2001 - 00:05:26 GMT

  • Next message: Scott Chase: "RE: Darwinian evolution vs memetic evolution"

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    From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com>
    To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    Subject: RE: Darwinian evolution vs memetic evolution
    Date: Fri, 09 Feb 2001 19:05:26 -0500
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    >From: "Lawrence DeBivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu>
    >Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    >Subject: RE: Darwinian evolution vs memetic evolution
    >Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2001 07:52:06 -0500
    >
    >
    >
    >CHRIS TAYLOR:
    >You don't need Lamarck if you consider a shorter timebase where the meme
    >you 'see' is not an entity but a succession of copies of itself (quick
    >manifestation: the way ideas change in your mind over time). New
    >'mutants'/'hybrids' occur on a short timescale - I could really push it
    >and use the analogy of animation blurring many things into one...
    >
    >LdB:
    >
    >I like your animation metaphor: one of the measures of the success of the
    >meme is the fidelity with which the successive copies are made.
    >
    >
    Here we go with the analogies again. Words like "mutant" and "hybrid"
    suggest something akin to genetic phenomena. "Fidelity" and "copy" suggests
    that there is something atomizable.

    At least with genes one can make comparisons between sequences at the
    genetic level or in some instances compare discrete effects at the
    phenotypic level. One can even look at relationships of dominance and
    recessiveness or construct a Punnett square.

    How does one compare "memes" to establish a percentage of similarity or
    copying fidelity or are these just hopeful analogies? Can we establish a
    mutation rate for "memes"?

    Do "memes" evolve by duplication and divergence?

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