Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id XAA19704 (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 23:29:16 GMT Message-Id: <5.0.2.1.0.20011128174740.00a23ec0@mail.clarityconnect.com> X-Sender: rrecchia@mail.clarityconnect.com X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.0.2 Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 18:22:55 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Ray Recchia <rrecchia@mail.clarityconnect.com> Subject: artefacts Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Ok Wade I'll just add in a few more points. I think I've made enough to
score a win with the jury already but when opposing counsel is playing
advocate for the devil it never hurts to add in a few more.
1. You seem to be insisting that the reason artefacts are a better
description of memes because of flaws in using imitation. However, your
artefacts still need to reproduce somehow if you are going to consider them
evolutionary replicators. You haven't offered any substitute that does not
involve an examination of the mind of a living organism. Imitation has
been tendered by behaviorists as a blanket method of explaining replication
in large part because they wanted to avoid having to delve too deeply into
the unknowns of the human mind.
You can't really avoid replication either. Otherwise you have no way of
distinguishing your artefacts from artefacts created by birds or
wasps. Somehow, something has to have been replicated extra genetically.
2. In the next few decades the human race will likely begin genetically
altering itself. This will make humans artefacts of themselves and thus by
your definition - memes. Perhaps test tube babies would already count as
memes in your system. This would make their thoughts part of a meme and
thus subject to memetic examination.
In closing, I would like to admonish you for having taken on the devil as a
client when fellow Massachusetts jurist Daniel Webster fought so hard to
defeat him in the early part of the U.S.A's development.
Ray Recchia
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