Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id RAA13407 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 26 Nov 2001 17:47:58 GMT From: <salice@gmx.net> Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 18:42:58 +0100 (MET) To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk References: <20011126140942.AAA15869@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Subject: Re: A Question for Wade X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-Authenticated-Sender: #0000542789@gmx.net X-Authenticated-IP: [62.67.68.58] Message-ID: <32615.1006796578@www55.gmx.net> X-Mailer: WWW-Mail 1.5 (Global Message Exchange) X-Flags: 0001 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> I thought I was painting them with possibly too broad a brush- it is a
> nag at me, this fact that just about everything ever made is a meme.
> Certainly everything made _again_ is. And everything made with a want to
> have it used could be.
Well it's hard to say what can become usefull, as culture changes different
pieces of information become important. Look at how the industry copies
nature's design of birds for the design of airplanes for instance. The thing
is,
was the bird made for us to copy it's design? No, it becomes a meme at the
time
when we see it as something being able to copy and worth to copy.
> But what makes meme A be taken up and made again? Let us find the
> evolutionary niche of the actual artifact- where do we see teenagers'
> jeans once again cut below the bellybutton? Map this niche. Predict where
> it will be next. Make a science with this thing.
I agree. It's actually more interesting to look at the real effect of memes
or more
broadly cultural transmission. To exactly define what a meme is and what not
might be interesting for a while but doesn't get pretty much anywhere.
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