Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id BAA18111 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 6 Feb 2002 01:45:21 GMT Message-ID: <003c01c1aeb7$24d26160$5e2ffea9@oemcomputer> From: "Philip Jonkers" <philipjonkers@prodigy.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <59716B92-13FE-11D6-8CCE-003065A0F24C@harvard.edu> Subject: Re: Fw: sex and the single meme Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 17:36:54 -0900 Organization: Prodigy Internet Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Philip:
> >> Could you give me a (behaviorist) definition of what
> >> you consider a meme.
Wade:
> Memes are behaviors of culture that are replicated, in some
> fashion, after perception, by another.
>
> They are external activities. Artefacts are products of memes.
> Spoor, if you will. Written passages are products of memes.
>
> And that's it.
>
> And it's _not_ a behaviorist definition at all. It's a
> definition that attempts to isolate the meme to its only
> _verifiable_ and _studiable_ location.
>
> Thus, we don't talk, memetically, about what Picasso _could_
> have done, we talk about what he did.
>
> We don't drive the parts of the car or the processes of
> manufacturing in the factory, we drive the car produced by the
> these things.
>
> We don't put our cereal in the clay on the potter's wheel, we
> put it in the finished product fired in the kiln- and we can't
> analyze or 'see' memes in the brain, or use them, in the same
> way, although we can see the processes and the parts, or we will
> be able to, with more and increased fMRI and other studies.
>
> It is a practical, locational, definition, separate from
> instinctual or autonomic behaviors, although, yes, instinct is
> also a process in the meme factory.
Okay, fair enough. However, I can't see why instinct has anything to do
with meme-processing. If instinct was that important wouldn't more
animals have developed a culture too?
Philip.
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