Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id XAA17463 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 22 Jan 2002 23:11:09 GMT X-Sender: unicorn@pop.greenepa.net Message-Id: <p04320407b8739c652ac8@[192.168.2.3]> In-Reply-To: <LAW2-F36DbLa1RHPVSz000040e3@hotmail.com> References: <LAW2-F36DbLa1RHPVSz000040e3@hotmail.com> Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 18:07:21 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: "Francesca S. Alcorn" <unicorn@greenepa.net> Subject: Re: sex and the single meme Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Grant said:
>When I tell you my idea, you receive the information based on your
>own concept of what I'm trying to say. Thus my experience, which
>led to the idea, and your experience, which is the basis for
>understanding what I am trying to convey, act like the two lines of
>genetic material that form a new person. The result is a meme that
>is not exactly the original idea nor exactly a new idea. We might
>call it a hybrid of the old idea plus new material. I have to admit
>that seems awfully close to what sex does for genes.
This is closer to what I was trying to say earlier. When two
bacteria have sex they just meet, swap genetic material and then go
on their way (conjugation). No male, female monogamy etc.
Bacterial sex. :)
I tried to look it up on the internet and found this:
Sexual reproduction in bacteria may involve taking up DNA from
the environment, from viruses, from plasmids, or from conjugation.
The addition of genetic variability is random and depends on the
correct binding receptors on the surface of the bacterium.
- http://www.discoverbiology.com/function/ch36.htm
I didn't know that there were other forms of sexual reproduction in
bacteria besides conjugation until I read this. But the whole
paragraph sounds like it could be applied to memes. Maybe memes are
single-cell ideas?
frankie
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