Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA01242 (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 03:51:59 GMT Message-ID: <015201c1b124$540a8880$3e03aace@oemcomputer> From: "Philip Jonkers" <philipjonkers@prodigy.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <5.1.0.14.0.20020201203643.03556980@pop.cogeco.ca> <5.1.0.14.0.20020207132702.038bbd90@pop.cogeco.ca> Subject: Re: Words and memes Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 19:43:30 -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
Keith?:
> > At the other end of this spectrum, you have memes that spread by
inducing
> > people to go out and do glassy eyed recruiting. Memes like Heaven's
Gate
> > or Moonies spread by directly inducing behavior of no value to the host
> > rather than indirectly by being darned useful to the host.
Phil:
>Indeed such memes obviously do not have actual real value but they do
>pretend to do so. They give the meme hosts delusions of grandeur
>(scientology) and
>eternal afterlife (conventional religions). Such memes advertise fitness
>increments when in actual fact of course they can't live up to that claim.
Keith:
Well stated. Of course this lead into my current main interest which is
why human have evolved to be susceptible to memes that do them or their
potential for reproductive success so much damage.
Phil again:
Meme-gene coevolution resulted in the production of meme-machines that
create memes of all sorts and sizes, benevolent or malevolent, epic or
modest,
useful or useless, loud or subtle, etc... The key to success of a meme is
whether
it is capable of persuading their potential hosts of the utility (fitness
increment)
the meme represents upon adoption. It doesn't have to be genuine utlility
but
still it should be propagandized as such. It's all about proper marketing
figuratively
speaking.
Truly useful memes (technology/agriculture/hunting) led to the big cultural
brain
of humans in the old days and were obviously very successful in convincing
memehosts to adopt them.
Today memes of a more useless and malevolent character (like
cult/religion/pseudoscience) can be exceedingly adept in also pressing that
psychological button (as Richard Brodie would put it) and too succeed in
persuading hosts into adoption. Niches for adoption are open to all
kinds of memes, it doesn't really matter that they are useful as much as
their capability of persuasion. It is in the interest of the memes however
that
they shouldn't drive their hosts too much into extinction, as for instance
happened
with the malevolent Nazi-memes.
Philip.
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