Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id LAA24723 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 15 Feb 2001 11:43:47 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745C70@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Darwinian evolution vs memetic evolution Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 11:43:09 -0000 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Isn't it true that the last line is 'for the sake of...'?
The trouble is that, superficially at least, in nature environmental
selection pressures are pretty evident- heat/cold, dry/wet, high up/low down
and so on (plus many more micro-level elements of course).
The problem is what are the major aspects of the cultural environment that
create selection pressures for memes? We know of historical examples where
technologies have not been taken up, or have been rapidly developed, due to
cultural aspects (e.g. development of guns in Europe but not in China were
they were invented, or discarding of the wheel in Japan etc.). But these
are large scale, and we don't really know the details of such events, how on
earth do we identify why 'play it again, sam' prospers rather than the
original line?
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Chris Taylor
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 11:30 am
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: Darwinian evolution vs memetic evolution
>
> Memetic fitness is the same as any other - given a set of conditions and
> an environment, what works works. This is certainly the case with life;
> SJ Gould's 'Wonderful Life' has some freakish creatures in it from early
> ecosystems, I'll bet not one would survive today, but not because the
> abiotic environment is so different, but because the rest of the
> environment has evolved. Life forms the majority of life's environment,
> and it all continually adapts to itself.
>
> I always liked "For the sake of Auld Lang Syne" which I hear a lot at
> New Year instead of "Fo-or Auld Lang Syne" which is the accurate version
> but doesn't scan nearly so well; so the adaptation is to 'naturalise'
> (into somethoing more like spoken language) a song form, by matching
> each note to a syllable.
>
> Cheers, Chris.
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
> http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> ===============================================================
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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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