Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA00358 (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 20:52:48 GMT Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020117154149.02c48db0@pop.cogeco.ca> X-Sender: hkhenson@pop.cogeco.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 15:49:59 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@cogeco.ca> Subject: RE: playing at suicide In-Reply-To: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6D1E8@inchna.stir.ac.uk > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 02:20 PM 17/01/02 +0000, Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk>
wrote:
>Hi,
>
>But that's a generic cop-out. Why, at any one particular time, does one
>thing become fad, and not others?
<grin> If you could answer that, you would be rich on the pet rock
model. Such work as has been done on songs indicates that novelty, but not
too much! is one way of describing memes that become fads.
>Memetics surely argues beyond the simple
>utility function by suggesting that some things (here I'm being deliberately
>vague to incorporate both memes in minds and artefactual memes) replicate
>regardless of their utility. Besides which there are behaviours that have
>been discussed on the list at length previously that overtly conflict with
>utility (in terms of natural selection) such as celibacy and suicide.
I have discussed this aspect in considerable depth in an article I expect
to submit to JOM shortly.
The key is that memes can take advantage of human psychological mechanisms,
particularly the attention reward pathway. We all are aware that addictive
drugs--which also take advantage of that pathway--can have natural
selection effects as devastating to a person's genes as celibacy and
suicide. So it should not be too much of a jump to consider a meme using
the same pathway.
Keith Henson
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