Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA01212 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 9 Feb 2002 03:40:27 GMT X-Originating-IP: [137.110.248.206] From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Words and memes Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2002 19:34:50 -0800 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <LAW2-F17DUfdfdhNzW300001ed8@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 09 Feb 2002 03:34:50.0709 (UTC) FILETIME=[BAF6D850:01C1B11A] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>
>I didn't say 'useful for anything', I said, 'justification for
>anything' - taking up your problem (which I share) of views
>being justified (as if that were possible) by memetics.
>
>I don't try to fallback into any position, even into safe positions....
>
>- Wade
>
Excuse me if I'm jumping into a private arguement here, but I think memetics
is too new a tool to have developed into a useful instrument and I've seen
very few people try to find a way to actually use it for anything. I think
it might be a great tool with which to study the evolution of culture, but
it will have to compete with a discipline that already exists. Linguistics
has the same problem with Noam Chomsky and his reductionist approach
blocking the way.
Memetics would seem to be a good fit for the concepts of complexity theory.
Cultures seem like complex adaptive systems in the classical sense of the
term. The study of what emerges from the evolution of memes and memeplexes
might be a good place to start.
Just a thought.
Grant
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