Re: What/Who selects memes?

From: Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Thu Oct 04 2001 - 00:38:55 BST

  • Next message: salice: "A Test" 

    Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id AAA28664 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 4 Oct 2001 00:47:04 +0100
Subject: Re: What/Who selects memes?
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2001 19:38:55 -0400
x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu
x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas
From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Message-ID: <20011003233854.AAA12262@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.132]>
Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk
Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk

    While computers can be monitored with utilities and debuggers to
    determine what processes and applications are currently running, there is
    no such analog or utility for the human mind.

    If it can be said that culture is analogous to programs, then, no, there
    is nothing, nohow, to determine what culture the mind is running at the
    moment.

    There is some reliable evidence that we can tell what emotions are being
    felt, however.

    The interface between emotions and society may well be culture, but, we
    do not know, nor can we ascertain, what programs are running (or what
    memes are resident) or even what culture someone is from.

    No analytical real time tool (like fMRI) can determine what cultural
    background I have.

    But, it's relatively simple to determine that a computer is running a
    benighted office suite relegated to the limbo of a monopolistic operating
    system, and chained to a specific processor, just by observing.

    Then again, observation (and what is obvious) is often a trap in science.

    - Wade

    ===============================================================
    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 archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Oct 04 2001 - 00:52:20 BST