sex and the single meme

From: Francesca S. Alcorn (unicorn@greenepa.net)
Date: Sun Jan 20 2002 - 06:34:14 GMT

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Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 01:34:14 -0500
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: "Francesca S. Alcorn" <unicorn@greenepa.net>
Subject: sex and the single meme
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    Wade said:

    >I started a sort of frivolous thread here about what might be sexual in
    >memetics, since sex in genetics is such a vital engine of evolution, but
    >I never considered hermaphroditic internalizations.

    But sex is simply the exchange of genetic material. If a meme enters
    your head (consentually or otherwise), it might contain new ideas
    which you adopt and integrate into your existing meme structure (or
    to use piaget's term, your schema). That is an exchange of memetic
    information between two different memes. Ergo sex. If you
    incorporate some of your ideas into the meme you received, and then
    pass it on to someone else then that is also exchange of information.
    Ergo sex.

    >_If_ the behavior you emit is _precisely_ the behavior the 'meme'
    >expected to exhibit, then, I think the internal memists have their day.
    >But, from all corners of experience, I hold that one's behavior is
    >almost, at many moments, as unknown and unexpected to them as it would be
    >to a stranger, and even the strongest of intentions do not produce the
    >behavior desired.

    Then this would be mutation, an error in copying.

    An exact duplication would be...I don't know, you could call it
    budding (like yeast) or something. :)

    frankie

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