Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id NAA21631 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 15 Jan 2002 13:56:55 GMT Message-Id: <200201151352.g0FDqVB03786@terri.harvard.edu> Subject: Re: Knowledge, Memes and Sensory Perception Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 08:52:20 -0500 x-sender: wsmith1@camail.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T. Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 01/15/02 08:25, Ray Recchia said this-
>If someone tells you that "The earth revolves around the sun" in Japanese
>they have behaved quite differently than they would if that told you that
>same thing in English.
No argument. But they have performed this meme in a cultural vacuum- I
don't speak japanese. Their meme cannot be replicated by me.
>You would label these two separate memes.
I would. (At least right now, now that I'm on my meme-is-behavior-only
kick.)
>If you
>tell someone that "The earth revolves around the sun in English" and they
>pass this information along to someone else in Japanese there would be no
>correlation under your proposed memetic theory and no passage of memes at
>all.
If I performed this meme in english, I would do so only knowing that my
audience understands english to a sufficient degree, and is prepared to
translate my performance, to the best of their ability, for a japanese
audience. I hope that, if I've performed this meme with enough accuracy
and simplicity, that further behaviors of this audience will be fairly
complete replications of this, and thus my meme lives. It ain't the same
meme, as no two things are identical, but, within memetic parameters, the
meme replicates the most that gets understood for replication the best.
>Haven't we been around this circle way too many times now?
I don't want to run around in circles at all. And this tangential vector
of mine is not a circle, not is it contained in one.
- Wade
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