Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA27023 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 25 Jan 2002 22:56:39 GMT Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020125174741.03533b90@pop.cogeco.ca> X-Sender: hkhenson@pop.cogeco.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 17:54:07 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@cogeco.ca> Subject: RE: Selfish Meme? In-Reply-To: <C4C20D0AEF0BF84B90CFEA0105EEB0BD29ADC6@selene.shu.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 04:22 PM 25/01/02 +0000, "Price, Ilfryn" <I.Price@shu.ac.uk>
wrote:
snip
>However that progress is episodic and science does have a tendency to
>cling to old paradigms until "The old guard finally dies or retires" (I
>think but do not have the reference that that was Bohr). Science in that
>sense is still a social construct or a paradigm replication system (Hull,
>1988) or a creation of memeplexes (for those of us of the inclusive bent),
>albeit one where the selection process is ultimately grounded in objective
>reality (just to raise a few constructionist hassles. Therein lies the
>great hope of memetics (which is why some fear it) putting some science
>(back into for there is an evoluionary tradition) into social science.
There may be a reason for this. Humans are most susceptible to memes when
they are young. Same thing is true for other primates, the potato washing
behavior spread only slowly into the older groups of monkeys in that study.
Though there are exceptions in humans most older people are not so keen
about learning new material--and in the stone age environment such a trait
would not have been much selected.
Keith Henson
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