Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id VAA02338 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 25 Apr 2001 21:12:36 +0100 Message-ID: <001701c0cdc8$f6fe7b40$d99ebed4@default> From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <Pine.WNT.4.21.0104231139350.216-100000@C157775-A.frndl1.wa.home.com> Subject: Re: The Status of Memetics as a Science Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 22:46:38 +0200 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
----- Original Message -----
From: TJ Olney <market@cc.wwu.edu>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2001 8:56 PM
Subject: RE: The Status of Memetics as a Science
> On Sun, 22 Apr 2001, Scott Chase wrote:
> > Is marketing, sales, promotion, propaganda, advertizing or whatver
suddenly
> > going to become even more virulent due to the presence of the concept of
> > memetics? People have been doing those sorts of things for years sans
> > "memetic engineering". I fail to see any ethical crisis
Hi Scott,
<< The difference is that Memetic Engineering goes deeper, works deeper
than the ususal propaganda and advertising processes.
Where propaganda and advertising processes come up with memes to
buy their products and/ or to act in a certain way, let memetic engineering
memes on the loose which are very potent and the " creatives " know
that they are !!
Memetic engineering is like brainwashing, but in a ' gente way ' if I may
use that expression.
Memetic engineering works along those ways by which you will stand
open for those memes.
Propaganda and advertising works without those ways. Memetic engi-
neering is a complex of engineered processes which straiten out the ways
for what is yet to come.
Memetic engineering disposes of those memes which stand in the way of
those memes yet to come. They " smooth " the way in a sense.
That is of course one way, the other is to provide a framework wherein
people get supplied with info which is relevant to them, a kind of learning
machine, to let them know what is good for them, but either way,
ethically...
notions like free will, personality, genetics, memetic make- up are put in
the balance, let alone who are we to decide what is " good " and what not!
Best,
Kenneth
( I am, because we are) part of this
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