Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA17880 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 28 Nov 2001 12:51:53 GMT Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D152@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: Study shows brain can learn without really trying Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 12:47:21 -0000 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
<I don't see your problem anyway. Consider a film as an cultural
artefact. In
> this film some behavior is shown which can be copied, it's a meme, a meme
> found in an cultural artefact. Then - what difference does it make to copy
> that
> behavior from a film or a from an actual living person in front of me. In
> the film there is a physical representation of the form. The behavior is
> encoded in it. The same way the behavior is encoded in the movement of the
> body of
> a actually living person in front of me. So that's the whole difference.
> You'd would have to agree with me when say that memes require a physical
> representation which i totally agree to. You just fail to see that when we
> observe a
> behavior we actually observe a physical representation to. The movement of
> atoms of a persons body.>
>
A good one this. There are fundamental differences in our responses
to mediated events, as opposed to those we experience directly. Remember
film is a 2-D representation in which a lot of information is missing (e.g.
touch, taste, smell- unless its smellovision of course :-)), so the
information is not encoded in the same way as in a person in front of you,
nor can it be decoded in the same way. Hence when army cadets copy their
instructors in shooting practice that's legitimate, but someone copying
'Natural Born Killers' is seen as aberrant (and usually seen, wrongly, as
the movie's fault, and not the looney's).
Consider your responses to images of the WTC attack, I assume most
of us witnessed these live on TV as they happened or immediately afterwards.
Would your response to these events have been the same/different if you had
been there? Similarly our responses to mediated information, inlcuding
potential for imitation are not the same as information received more
directly. That's not to say that imitation and learning can't come from
mediated forms just that these things are different. And it's in the
difference that the point lies, for me anyway, whilst others would focus on
the similarities.
Vincent
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