Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id SAA29326 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 26 Jan 2002 18:55:16 GMT Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020126134617.02c5ba10@pop.cogeco.ca> X-Sender: hkhenson@pop.cogeco.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 13:51:19 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@cogeco.ca> Subject: RE: Selfish Meme? In-Reply-To: <C4C20D0AEF0BF84B90CFEA0105EEB0BD29ADC9@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 05:03 PM 26/01/02 +0000, "Price, Ilfryn" <I.Price@shu.ac.uk>
wrote:
snip
>Keith
>
>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.
>
>If
>
>Possibly. However younger scientists (in this example)working in the same
>insitutions are under pressure to conform to current paradigmatic norms
>(grants, PhDs etc are then much easier to come by) so a memetic ESS has a
>tendency to self preservation, even in science.
Granted. Look at the opposition to plate tectonics and bacteria as the
cause of ulcers.
>That said, given the origin of this exchange, I do accept science has
>having more selective pressure for true explanations than other meme
>constructs.
Right. I have used the term "MetaMeme" for logic and the scientific
method. Over the long term (and as you point out it can take a generation)
MetaMemes exert strong selective forces on certain classes of other
memes. Phrenology as a type case.
Keith Henson
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