Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA27500 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 3 Oct 2001 13:37:41 +0100 From: <dgatherer@talk21.com> X-Mailer: talk21 v1.21 - http://talk21.btopenworld.com To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk X-Talk21Ref: none Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 13:27:54 BST Subject: Re: What/who selects memes? Message-Id: <20011003123527.CWAR863.t21mta03-app.talk21.com@t21mtaV-lrs> Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>there is an
>huge amount of real life examples which show that the >brain selects
>memes.
No, I dispute this. There's a huge amount of real life examples that show that people do a lot of thinking - but that's not the same thing. The selection of memes is largely due to the environment, just like the selection of genes.
>Just look a few mails ago, a text on memetics and >terrorism giving
>advises not to spread certain memes.
Yes, but that text advises that certain behaviours should be avoided. It doesn't give recommnedations on what to think.
>How do you know that raw food is potentially dangerous in >certain
>circumstances?
But Stone Age people _didn't know_, that's the whole point. The ones who cooked food had longer and more reproductive lives than the ones who didn't - but they were probably completely oblivious to _why_. In fact, they probably didn't even realise that such a process was happening. Cultural evolution happens independently of minds.
>Human society is a collection of brains and communication >between
>them. So culture lives in brains.
No, human society is a collection of people and the artifacts they leave behind.
>Not the structure is reproducible but the concluding meme >is.
>If you say something which i haven't thought of before and >it
>convinces me my brain structure is surely likely to >change. It won't
>look like yours but the resulting meme is going to be >saved in both
>of these structures in whatever way.
Excatly, the meme isn't in the brain. I'm confused now. you seem to be arguing that the meme is _not_ in the brain whereas above you were arguing that it is stored in the brain.
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