Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id GAA18885 (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 06:11:48 GMT Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 22:06:07 -0800 Message-Id: <200202060606.g16667106483@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: Meme bonding Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is)
> Re: Meme bondingDate: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 23:27:33 -0500
> "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>
>Hi Philip Jonkers -
>
>>I can't imagine that termites communicate their collective archeticural
>>culture to other termite communities.
>
>But birds don't do that either- to other colonies, that is. In most
>cases, a colony of birds is a species.
>
Robins from different localities proffer subtly differing calls, yet their nest-building behavior is the same.
>
>The whole species thing is problematic with memes and cultures. In many
>ways, humans have used memes as speciation tools. When the color of the
>skin is the same, or the eyes are the same, the us vs them instinct (or
>whatever it is), took over and created cultural behavior....
>
>Termites architectural 'culture' is wholely dependent upon their
>environment. And it can be said that humans culture is largely dependent
>upon their memetic environment.
>
The 'them' could be other humans, or it could be their natural environment, which would include other humans as a subset.
>
>Like bonding in young animals, we bond to the first signs that fill our
>genetic voids for cultural information, be it native language, social
>norms, speech accents, etc. And the termite uses what it sees, too.
>
But termites will die if they are released in the kind of soil that is wrong for them, but right for other termite specise. people, OTOH, will modify both their behavior, and through that, their environments, in irder to not only occupy, but actually create niches (such as undersea, space station, rain forest, snowfield, etc. Their speciation is indeed cultural, and only minimally genetic (such as fat storage capacities and dermal melanin concentrations).
>
>- Wade
>
>===============================================================
>This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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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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