From: Joseph Bloch <ulfgrim@nac.net>
To: memetics <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Meme Extinction
Date: Wed, 28 May 1997 09:42:02 -0400
Message-Id: <13440213912662@nac.net>
Peter Bentley wrote (and I snipped for bandwidth):
> Perhaps we should define what 'Bloch's paradox' actually *is*. I thought
> he was saying that you cannot study an extinct meme without
'resurrecting' it.
> Now, I repeat what I said previously - you cannot study an extinct meme
*at all*
> if it is truly extinct - because it is lost forever. Hence, there is a
paradox,
> but a slightly different one.
>
>
> if you can "observe directly" a meme THEN IT IS NOT EXTINCT!
That's it exactly. My point was that the very act of studying a meme means
that it cannot be extinct, because by studying it we give it a host mind,
and thus the meme lives.
Joseph Bloch (new email address)
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