Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id LAA11503 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 12 Mar 2001 11:20:02 GMT Message-ID: <3AACB01F.16BBA26@bioinf.man.ac.uk> Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 11:16:47 +0000 From: Chris Taylor <Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk> Organization: University of Manchester X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Are there any memes out there? References: <20010311210922.AAA13559@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.157]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
To get all mystical about accessing this library's content, I have two
rather different ways of thinking about this, and I can't reject one in
favour of the other:
1) When a certain form of meme (action, knowledge etc.) is required, a
kind of resonance propagates through the mind, embodying the selective
requirements, and whatever sings the loudest (most strongly 'hit' all
the 'resonant frequencies') comes to the 'fore' in the mind.
2) This mechanism requires that our little memes are independent and
self assorting: 'free space' in the mind (not literally, more in the
form of empty niches) can only be filled by memes fitting some criteria
(usually fairly slack - anything will often do in the last resort). More
or less all resident memes could try (the meme 'good memes exist in
others' may cause you to seek advice also) but whatever meme fits best
wins (so you usually end up finding a doorstop to stop the door, rather
than your PC).
Bit vague, but it's tricky to come up with a strong specific mechanism.
Cheers, Chris.
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Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
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