Re: Cichlids & Memes

From: Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Thu Aug 30 2001 - 12:21:18 BST

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    Subject: Re: Cichlids & Memes
    Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 07:21:18 -0400
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    Hi Vincent Campbell -

    >Of course whether fish really have culture or memes is, I suspect, a matter
    >of some contention.

    It's more a contention in some quarters to say, hmmm, with all these fish
    and birds and other creatures employing behavioral algorithms, why should
    we have any cause to claim _another_ mechanism (culture/memes) for our
    behaviors- and could we then not say that culture is a complex formation
    of these algorithms, and the admitted complication of language and
    artifact-making? (Not to mention consciousness, but, that might be along
    for the ride with language anyway.)

    Perhaps it's more of a blunting of Occam to call into existence memes.

    - Wade

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