Re: What/Who selects memes?

From: Bill Spight (bspight@pacbell.net)
Date: Tue Oct 02 2001 - 19:16:43 BST

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Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 11:16:43 -0700
From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net>
Subject: Re: What/Who selects memes?
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
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    Dear Wade,

    > >If memes are considered to work evolution-like there has to be some
    > >selection and obviously there is.
    >
    > Natural selection is _one_ of the mechanisms of evolution. But it does
    > not follow that evolution requires it, and it does not follow that
    > memetic evolution (if any such thing exists) requires it.
    >

    I'm a little confused. Salice mentions selection and you are talking
    about natural selection.

    I thought that, by definition, a meme is an evolutionary unit of
    culture. ("Unit" understood in a non-elemental sense.) Also, that, by
    definition, evolution requires variation, inheritance, and selection.

    It is certainly true that the selection need not be natural selection,
    but I don't think that that was the claim.

    I think that we agree, but I'm not sure.

    Thanks,

    Bill

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