Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA21710 (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 14:38:02 GMT Message-Id: <200201151433.g0FEXDS14894@sherri.harvard.edu> Subject: Re: Modes of transmission Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 09:33:02 -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 08:32, Ray Recchia said this-
>As I stated earlier I am not labelling memes by their modes of
>transmission.
I ain't either. I was trying to answer for Joe, probably inaccurately.
I'll demur to him.
>the use of language to transmit memes
>which regardless of whether spoken, signed, written, or typed.
Staying true to meme-is-behavior-only, the meme itself is this use of
language, and it is not regardless of whether spoken, signed, written, or
typed. It _is_ spoken, signed, written, or typed. The success of the meme
depends absolutely on the skill level of the usage and the presentation
of this level, because the understanding of the meme depends upon these
skills.
To beat on Robin's door, the meme is the information imparted during
memetic behavior, measured in success of transmission by comparison of
behaviors. (?)
I'm willing to say that exact behavioral replication is impossible, in an
ideal sense, but that it is the memetic goal to see one's behavior
replicated.
If I try phrenologic behaviors in a hospital, I will be laughed at.
(Well, depending on the hospital....) But if I try it in a newage book
store, I will sell sessions, and if I write a book, copies of that book.
I'm trying the meme-is-behavior-only behavior here and now. (A while ago,
I tried the meme-is-artefact-only behavior.) To be open, I'm more
invested in the behavior-only stance than I was in the artefact-only
stance, mostly because I didn't like the staticness of artefacts, and the
fact that the actual behavior was in a way dismissed in that stance, and
I didn't know what to do with performance art, among other things....
But I like thinking of memes as the behavioral products of memetically
directed cultural activity. So, I'm debating on that side of the podium
this time.
But, yes, memes as externally perceptible behaviors, absolutely. Like
that car that comes forth from the factory, but is not present inside of
it, memes are delivered. The factory (culture/mind) is the memeplex. The
meme is its product. Artefacts are echoes of the memetic behavior.
- Wade
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