Re: Information

From: wilkins (wilkins@wehi.EDU.AU)
Date: Tue May 08 2001 - 01:14:22 BST

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Date: Tue, 08 May 2001 10:14:22 +1000
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Subject: Re: Information
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    Mark Mills wrote:
    >
    > John,
    >
    > At 12:28 PM 5/7/01 +1000, you wrote:
    > > > If all people have a similar set of conceptual dispositions, dispostions to
    > > > create stories for instance, then one can lead a 'listener' through an
    > > > exercise in perceptional chains with somewhat predictable results. The
    > > > message may not be one that can be 'spoken,' but a predictable mental state
    > > > may be replicated (communicated) to the listener.
    > >
    > >Sure - but this is not memetics; it is evolutionary psychology.
    >
    > It is neural memetics.

    Whatever - it seems unnecessary to invent yet another discipline when
    the one is having enough trouble getting funding :-)
    >
    > >Within
    > >the generalised constraints of being human, memes are propagated in
    > >similar (enough) ways to all humans irrespective of biology, and so the
    > >operant protocol is what counts for meaning.
    >
    > What do you think puts this 'operant protocol' into the human head? Or, is
    > that even necessary?

    I'm going to get all Marxian on you - society is to blame :-) See my
    What's in a Meme essay for how I read it. 

    -- 
John Wilkins, Head, Communication Services, The Walter and Eliza Hall 
Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia
Homo homini aut deus aut lupus - Erasmus of Rotterdam
<http://www.users.bigpond.com/thewilkins/darwiniana.html>

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