Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA29541 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 17 Jan 2002 16:37:38 GMT Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 11:32:42 -0500 Subject: Re: Modes of transmission Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed From: Wade Smith <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D1ED@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Message-Id: <D4765640-0B67-11D6-BA07-003065A0F24C@harvard.edu> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.480) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Thursday, January 17, 2002, at 10:41 , Vincent Campbell wrote:
> A bank robber telling the teller to hand him the money isn't
> conveying a meme, he's conveying an instruction. Memes are
> things that are
> replicated. An instruction is not in and of itself something that is
> replicated, it is something that is either carried out, or not
> carried out.
> After all the teller is not imitating the robber by giving him all the
> money.
I was groping at completing the same objection, but, of course,
since the meme-hydra grows as many heads as it needs, all Joe,
or anyone else, has to say is, "well, of course, that's an
'instructional meme', silly". Just like we've been presented
with 'historical memes' and 'linguistic memes' and 'potential
memes', and, well, I'll let you finish the catalog.
Forcing a behavior onto someone else is coercion, but we've also
seen many mentions here that equates memetics with coercion, on
a very basic level.
- Wade
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