Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id VAA14373 (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 21:37:55 +0100 From: <joedees@bellsouth.net> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 13:08:34 -0500 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: Memory Message-ID: <3B73DCD2.26856.8EFF5B@localhost> In-reply-to: <001701c121bf$ec9a7460$da86b2d1@teddace> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12c) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 10 Aug 2001, at 10:14, Dace wrote:
> 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.
>
Actually, memories are indeed stored in the brain (in the
associative cortex), and the difference between whether short-term
memories disappear or become long-term memories seems to be
whether or not they engage the limbic system, that is, whether or
not the experience evokes an emotional response, as novel,
unusual and impotant experiences would. Also, there is recall
memory, where one can remember without a prompt, and
recognition memory, where one only remembers once one
encounters something, that they have encountered it before.
Therer is indeed a difference between memory of a first-hand
experience and memory of a second-hand account of it;
perspectival (that is, spatiotemporal) context. However, our
memory is kinda like a papyrus that gets continually overwritten;
spatiotemporal context gets lost, and a constructed narrative will
remain, which is less memory than it is knowledge (like the kind
we get from someone telling us a narrative, or reading one).
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
> For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
> see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
>
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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