Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 06:34:15 -0400
From: Dr I Price <PEWLEYFORT@compuserve.com>
Subject: Is Memetics Needed? [Was : A Drosophila etc]
To: "INTERNET:memetics@mmu.ac.uk" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Tim or Martha
>This boils down to saying that memetics does not seem to be *necessary*
the
way Mendelian genetics was necessary for explaining particulate
inheritance. Now, the staunch theorist of memetics will hold that memeti=
cs
offers a better or more plausible explanation for known phenomena that it=
s
alternatives, but so far no one has been able to define the criteria for
being a better explanation.<
Don't know whether I count as a staunch memticist Tim or Martha but I agr=
ee
memetics is not *necessary* the way a Mendelian particle was necessary. I=
do suggest
1. Memetics offers a unifying paradigm for all sorts of observations of
selection processes at work in cultural domains
2. The meme as autonomous self-interested replicator helps us understand
why the organisations we think we create do not always behave the way we
might like them to.
If
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