Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 15:03:08 +1000 (EST)
From: Chris Cleirigh <cleirig@speech.usyd.edu.au>
Message-Id: <199706130503.PAA22281@fortis.speech.usyd.edu.au>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: what's a meme
After Bill Benzon wrote:
>This is where I got the strange idea that it's the physical stuff
>out in the environment which is the memes (and went on to
>speculate that the mental things in the brain are the
>components and processes of cultural phenotypes).
>The orthodox memetic position of course, is the reverse.
I asked (unclearly):
>How does language emerge on this model...
>phenotype first, for example?
What I was getting at is how do we get from no language to
language if language memes are identified with
Rthe physical stuff out in the environmentS?
Models of how we get from no life to life might look to molecular
organisation of potential RgenomesS for a clue.
Models of how we get from no language to language might look to
brain organisation for a clue if language memes are associated
in some way with brain activity.
Where do we look if language memes are identified with
Rthe physical stuff out in the environmentS?
Looking to brain organisation for a clue is not parallel to the
biochemical approach if brain organisation constitutes the
phenotypic expression of memes.
Chris
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