Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id VAA11725 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 25 Jul 2001 21:14:33 +0100 Subject: Re: Memes and Archetypes Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 16:11:03 -0400 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20010725201131.AAA29447@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 07/25/01 14:46, Robin Faichney said this-
>What does it mean to say that a pattern "really exists"?
Top of my head- that it can be mathematically described, and replicated
in a model. That it be non-random.
However, that becomes ludicrously impossible to prove, non-randomness....
In nature, a set of genes will produce a species-identifiable life form.
That would seem to be pattern. That lifeform exhibits definite behaviors
upon certain stimulus. That would seem to be pattern. These behaviors are
alterable by environment. That would also seem to be a pattern, and is
the pattern-justification for culture in general, and thus memes in
specific.
Memes are the shape of the webs we weave from one social entity to
another.
There is a pattern in the way we start and continue the web.
There might also be a pattern in the way it ends up.
But, I'm not so sure.
The shape of the crystal, in gravityless space, is fixed by the structure
of the molecule.
We more need the descriptions and the patterns begun by environments to
distill the patterns of the interaction of entities with it.
Interference patterns.
- Wade
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