Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA14051 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 10 Aug 2001 18:16:19 +0100 Message-ID: <001701c121bf$ec9a7460$da86b2d1@teddace> From: "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <002501c120e6$765da4e0$b706bed4@default> Subject: Memory Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 10:14:22 -0700 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
I posted this yesterday (under the heading, "Logic") but it never went
through.
Ted Dace
From: <joedees@bellsouth.net>
> On 7 Aug 2001, at 10:15, Dace wrote:
>
> > I'm arguing that memes have no relation whatsoever to genes. Memes
> > are associated with thought. When enough people subscribe to a
> > particular belief, such as the notion that evolution is a product of
> > changing environmental conditions and random genetic mutation, then
> > this belief becomes part of our collective memory.
> >
> "And where is this 'collective memory" stored and how is it
> transmitted between individuals? In the non-genetic material in the
> zygote, or in the nonexiastent ether?
Memory is a function of time, not space. It has no particular location.
When you assume that memory is stored somewhere, you're defining it out of
existence. If memories are stored in the brain, then in order to remember
something, you must look up the information about it in your brain. But
memory is precisely that which enables you to know something about the past
*without* having to look it up. If memory involves storage of information,
then there would be no difference between remembering an important event you
personally witnessed and reading a description of it in a book. Memory, in
this model, is not so much explained as explained away.
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