Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA18227 (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 14:00:10 GMT Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 13:52:03 +0000 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: circular logic Message-ID: <20011128135203.B2031@ii01.org> References: <20011128125650.AAA16543@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.132]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20011128125650.AAA16543@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.132]> User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.23i From: Robin Faichney <robin@ii01.org> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Wed, Nov 28, 2001 at 07:56:52AM -0500, Wade T.Smith wrote:
> Hi Robin Faichney -
>
> >they start with the idea,
> >in other words they do not originate, but imitate.
>
> Ah, so 'starting with an idea' is imitation, for you.
Depends whether it's my own idea or one I got from someone else. You'll
have difficulty finding anyone -- outside of the anti-imitation people on
this list, who have their own agenda -- that takes any other view.
> I suppose, in some
> grand way, that might be true. We after all share DNA with practically
> every other form of life on this planet, so I guess one could say we
> imitate the aardvark.
Ignoring the deliberate stupidity there, there is of course a commonality
between the copying of genes and that of memes.
> But, it would seem to me that speaking evolutionarily, 'imitate' is
> fairly useless- we can isolate commonalities, yes, but, to assume
> everything that follows something else is imitating that something else
> is sloppy, at best.
But nobody is making that assumption.
> I did not imitate my father, or my mother- they had certain parts of
> themselves which made me.
Your genes are copies of some of theirs'.
> And they didn't make any attempt to imitate themselves when they made me.
I didn't say everything is imitation. But there is a sense in which
you are a partial imitation of them.
> They used the available resources and produced me.
>
> And a designer of a wheel does exactly the same thing. Uses the available
> resources.
>
> He doesn't imitate a damned thing.
In this case the relevant available resource is the concept of the wheel,
and in using it, the designer is imitating existing wheels.
Maybe it's time you gave us your definition of "imitate", because it's
obviously not the one in common use.
-- "A prime source of meta-memes" -- inside information -- http://www.ii01.org/ Robin Faichney=============================================================== 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 archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 28 2001 - 14:35:23 GMT