Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA08449 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 8 Oct 2001 14:13:59 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D07A@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Memes inside brain Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 14:09:10 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
<The problem I was pointing out is theoretical. When I first read
> Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene," I thought that he thought of memes as
> residing in the culture. That is not the same thing as residing in
> people's brains. Then the meme as a manifest cultural component, such as
> a TV jingle or a saying or a way of doing something, could be manifested
> again by another person or group of people. The transmission from
> manifestation to manifestation could reasonably be termed "imitation".
> Imitation would include learning, OC, but would not be specific about
> how the learning took place.
>
> Later I found out that he conceived of memes as residing in brains. Now
> imitation does not seem to be a good way to talk about the transmission
> of the unmanifest meme in person A's brain to the unmanifest meme in
> person B's brain. For instance, suppose that chef A makes a certain dish
> in a certain way, then writes down the recipe and sends it to chef B.
> Chef B, following the recipe, makes the dish in the same way as chef A,
> with the same result. That would seem to be memetic transmission, but
> where is the imitation? If the meme resides in chef B's brain, it has to
> be there before he makes the dish. What if he learns the recipe and then
> dies before making the dish? How is his brain any different before
> making the dish than after doing so? Does he not have the meme until the
> act of making the dish?>
>
Very well put Bill, much better than what I've been sending ( I've
just noticed going back over my posts today some dreadful spelling and
grammar in my posts, so apologies to all for that). If I understand you
correctly, this was kind of what I was trying to say- that it seems easier
to me to talk of transmission of memes that are manifest in some way, than
of memes in brains. I know that's because of my discipline bias- more
focused on the messages and the media (in the broad rather than narrow
sense) than on the senders or receivers.
I'll stop there, simply because I've broken my new rule of no more
than 3 posts per day. I just had to applaud this comment (and apologise for
my poor grammar).
> Best,
>
> Bill
>
> ===============================================================
> 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 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
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