Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA15098 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 30 Aug 2001 12:27:22 +0100 Message-ID: <3B8E229F.60254280@bioinf.man.ac.uk> Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2001 12:25:19 +0100 From: Chris Taylor <Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk> Organization: University of Manchester X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Cichlids & Memes References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101746064@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Of course whether fish really have culture or memes is, I suspect, a matter
> of some contention.
I think animal memes (bird/whale song, tool use etc.) deserve as serious
consideration as any others; given that, I would agree that if (for
example) offspring learned their sexual preference from their parent's
colouration (as some insects remember the 'smell' of their larval host
plant, to which they return to procreate, resulting in assortative
mating), then these are memes - little packets of information with
associated behaviours, however they are stored (write-once, rewritable,
even genetic - I'd argue that even the genetically controlled behaviours
can be memes, just an older wood-burning version).
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Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
http://bioinf.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
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