Date: Mon, 23 Jun 1997 14:53:33 -0400
From: Dr I Price <PEWLEYFORT@compuserve.com>
Subject: Re: Is Memetics Needed? [Was : A Drosophila etc]
To: "INTERNET:memetics@mmu.ac.uk" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Tim
>Do I get an A?
In Answer #3, I left out the part where a number of people and corporatio=
ns
got very, very, VERY rich from both projects -- that's economics, not
memetics.<
Nasty feeling you have a rhetorical trap lurking but yes. If the point is=
memetics is not *necessary* then see my original agreement.
Followers of one school of economics would say it is a selection
competition between 'rules' which are seeking their share, and more, of
available matter/energy. Where does ecology stop and genetics begin?
I suspect cities are an example of what Brian Arthur terms 'increasing
returns economics' but won't quibble.
Now I have read Mario
--------------------------
Isn't it? Could a unifying theory not include economics? From my point
of view (information and encoding), economics is about the encoding of
value. And than you get money, which nicely follows the deeper and
deeper encoding evolution of other information (trade as behaviour,
shells, coins, paper money, digital money). Something which starts to
lead its own life, influencing terribly strong people's behaviour (name
it and it can be done, if someone can earn money with it: you want a
video with kid pornography? If you pay enough someone will get you one). =
One might as well say that 'Money' is the most important 'meme' on
Earth.
--------------------------
Yes it could and yes Money has moved from medium of exchange to meme. Rea=
d
Andrew Crocketis wonderful 1975 book on the subject.
If Price
Active Personal Learning, Guildford UK
http://members.aol.com/ifprice/ifresch.html
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