Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA29834 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 3 Dec 2001 13:00:00 GMT Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 12:45:14 +0000 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Wilkins on the meme:engram relation Message-ID: <20011203124514.A1526@ii01.org> References: <F173SZZhu6hDLjFBrp200005fa1@hotmail.com> <A9EF68AE-E773-11D5-88AB-003065B4D1F0@wehi.edu.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <A9EF68AE-E773-11D5-88AB-003065B4D1F0@wehi.edu.au> 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 Mon, Dec 03, 2001 at 09:26:43AM +1100, John Wilkins wrote:
>
> Evolutionary genes (replicators) and memes (also replicators)
> are not the same as the physical entities that are usually their
> instantiation. I am tending to see replicators as abstract entities with
> no causal role. In sum, they are bookkeeping entities, as Wimsatt once
> said.
Spot on! There's a book entitled something like "Economics as if people
mattered". To do genetics is to look at the development of lifeforms
as if the survival of the gene is what matters, and to do memetics is
to look at the development of culture as if the survival of the meme is
what matters.
What *really* matters? Nothing, in general, because it depends on the
specific context. In these contexts, these strategies are useful -- or at
least, in the case of memetics, we might suppose that it will eventually
be proven so. But neither gene nor meme is either active or concrete.
They're just patterns in the flow.
-- "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
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