Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA11282 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 25 Nov 2001 22:53:45 GMT Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 14:48:44 -0800 Message-Id: <200111252248.fAPMmi006723@mail18.bigmailbox.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary X-Mailer: MIME-tools 4.104 (Entity 4.116) X-Originating-Ip: [216.76.255.98] From: "Joe Dees" <joedees@addall.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: A Question for Wade Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is)
> Re: A Question for WadeDate: Sun, 25 Nov 2001 14:32:16 -0500
> "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>
>Hi Scott Chase -
>
>>What's so special about the "meme" term? Why can't we just use "idea",
>>"belief", or "concept" to say the same thing? As Ernst Mayr says of the
>>meme:
>>
>>(bq) "It seems to me that this word is nothing but an unnecessary synonym of
>>the term "concept"." (eq)
>
>All of which and thus forced me to reconstruct my own thinking and remove
>all farce. The meme is a cultural artifact. Any other usage is erroneous
>and multiplicative.
>
Memes are not things, but meaningful patterns in which matter/energy is arranged. This is true whether we are talking about the meaningful sound patterns in which air is arranged to enunciate words, the meaningful geometrical patterns in which ink or pixels or pencil lead are arranged to write them, the meaningful action patterns out bodies enact in order to type or write or speak them, or the meaningful neuron/synapse activation patterns in which such representations are stored in our brains. The selfsame meme, say, the idea that memes don't exist, may be represented in all of these differing media, and yet be the same meme, for what is constant is not the pattern itself (example: different languages), since a meme may be represented in many different ways in any particular medium, and may be represented in many different media, but the connection between the patterns, as differing representamens, and the idea or concept, as referent. To say that these representati!
ons exist (as they obviously do), and that they MEAN the same thing, and then to maintain that they possess no common referent, makes no logical sense to me.
>
>- Wade
>
>===============================================================
>This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
>Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
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>see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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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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