Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA15382 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 27 Nov 2001 14:05:04 GMT Subject: Re: A Question for Wade Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2001 08:59:29 -0500 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 list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20011127140005.AAA29047@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 11/26/01 23:17, Joe Dees said this-
>>And nothing is a meme until it is available. And no idea is available
>>until it is artifact, of some type.
>>
>My memory is (imperfectly) available to me
The imperfect is a bad place to start. Not that yours is uniquely
imperfect, of course, no one's is perfect. Nature of memory.
Then again, what is the nature of memory? Bad place to put a meme, such
an unknown.
>A car, and a picture of the same model, and the memory of driving one, and
>the written-down name of the model, are all part and parcel of the
>existent memeplex. As such, they share something in common, and that is
>their meaningful referent; I consider this meaning-relation, independent
>of how it is instantiated, to be the meme.
After having re-read Gatherer's paper, I know his argument with the above
is the lack of empiricism for such a concept. I agree. And I agree that,
until and unless we have a better knowledge of the landscape of the mind,
it is useless to populate it with probable strangers, like memes.
Rather and more useful, follow the memes we know.
What is happening in the mind landscape is relevant, but there is no need
to put anything in there, since what is there is only culturally
significant when it is expressed.
- Wade
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