Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id FAA18787 (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 05:55:54 GMT Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 21:50:14 -0800 Message-Id: <200202060550.g165oEc05204@mail3.bigmailbox.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary X-Mailer: MIME-tools 4.104 (Entity 4.116) X-Originating-Ip: [66.156.194.113] From: "Joe Dees" <joedees@addall.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Fw: sex and the single meme Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is)
> "Philip Jonkers" <philipjonkers@prodigy.net> <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Re: Fw: sex and the single memeDate: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 17:36:54 -0900
>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.
>
So your definition is a practical and provisional one that applies only until we develop these capacities more fully, and does not seek to deny their existence, but merely to place them in abeyance until such time as they may be subjected to useful observation and experiment? In some cases, that time is already here.
>
>> 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.
>
>
>
>
>===============================================================
>This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
>Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
>For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
>see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
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