Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA16799 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 14 Jan 2002 03:04:54 GMT X-Authentication-Warning: cheetah.nor.com.au: Host 009.analog.ppp.lismore.dataheart.net [202.147.132.9] claimed to be green-machine Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.20020114135529.0070a198@pophost.nor.com.au> X-Sender: jeremyb@pophost.nor.com.au X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.1 (32) Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 13:55:29 +1100 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Jeremy Bradley <jeremyb@nor.com.au> Subject: Re: Knowledge, Memes and Sensory Perception In-Reply-To: <20020111101447.A553@ii01.org> References: <3.0.1.32.20020111163833.00690e74@pophost.nor.com.au> <3C3DB596.6010202@bioinf.man.ac.uk> <3.0.1.32.20020111163833.00690e74@pophost.nor.com.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 10:14 AM 11/01/02 +0000, you wrote:
>
>Hi Jeremy, you might be interested in my argument that memes should be
>considered *encoded* in brains, behaviour and artefacts. This is on
>the web here: http://www.ii01.org/culture.html
>Quote from Robin's WWW page
"objective behavioural and neural patterns exist,
and cultural information is transmitted by them “horizontally” through
human society, just as genetic information is transmitted “vertically” by
reproduction."
This is the stuff Robin. I believe that there is a mapable code, which can
be read into every cultural artefact. It is the basis of the 'Social
Contract' to which members of a society mutually subscribe. It is what
makes members of a 'civilisation' believe that they are 'civilised'.
Conversely, our memeticly created sociality (being based on a binary
linguistic system) has difficulty in defining 'Others' as being civilised
at all. Herein lies the basis of conflict.
In my theory the manipulation of our social storyscape (from children's
tales to mass-media) is a process of memetic engineering.
Example: My mother tells family stories about what members of the family
did in the war, or the depression, etc. What is she doing other than
imparting family values? In our case we learned that survival in tough
times depended on the ability to acquire certain skills and attitudes.
This will not translate into a mass jam-bottling at the first sign of
recession, but it has meant that my fellow siblings and I, picked up
certain survival skills because we were 'programmed' to do so.
Jeremy
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