Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id HAA15138 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 13 Jan 2002 07:08:32 GMT X-Originating-IP: [137.110.248.206] From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: playing at suicide Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 23:04:05 -0800 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <LAW2-F25lxGIcSHN7WR00015d76@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 13 Jan 2002 07:04:06.0119 (UTC) FILETIME=[7D6B1F70:01C19C00] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Keith,
I don't see how you can separate the meme from the brain. I tend to go
along with E. O. Wilson that in order to understand, you have to understand
the environment as well as the organism at three levels. The meme, the
brain and society are all important to the process. Without understanding
all three, I don't think we'll really understand any of them.
Grant
> wrote:
>>>Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2002 01:24:53 +0100
>
>>> > I wasn't trying to start an earthquake or
>>> > anything, just to counter the idea that memes are like selfish genes.
>>>
>>>According to your theory of memes, can you explain why you do
>>>this?
>>I do it because the meme doesn't ring true to me and therefore doesn't
>>allow me to do what I want to do, which is to understand memes. I feel
>>like Copernicus wondering why people want him to believe the earth is the
>>center of the solar system. It may turn out that they're right and I'm
>>wrong, but I can't help wondering.
>
>I think you are barking up the wrong tree.
>
>Memes are *simple,* patterns of information that can be passed from one
>organism to another by a process more or less of imitation. Learning if
>you will. Don't try to make memetics more complicated than it is.
>
>I think what you might be looking for falls under the area of evolutionary
>psychology. If any area of human knowledge can provide a model for the
>pathological memetics examples, Jim Jones, Solar Temple, Heaven's Gate and
>others, not to mention why people in cults act like they are addicted,
>evolutionary psychology is the field. Try
>here: http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.html
>
>"The goal of research in evolutionary psychology is to discover and
>understand the design of the human mind. Evolutionary psychology is an
>approach to psychology, in which knowledge and principles from evolutionary
>biology are put to use in research on the structure of the human mind. It
>is not an area of study, like vision, reasoning, or social behavior. It is
>a way of thinking about psychology that can be applied to any topic within
>it.
>
>"In this view, the mind is a set of information-processing machines that
>were designed by natural selection to solve adaptive problems faced by our
>hunter-gatherer ancestors. This way of thinking about the brain, mind, and
>behavior is changing how scientists approach old topics, and opening up new
>ones. This chapter is a primer on the concepts and arguments that animate
>it."
>
>Keith Henson
>
>
>===============================================================
>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
>
_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
===============================================================
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 : Sun Jan 13 2002 - 07:15:22 GMT