Message-Id: <199707091920.OAA11482@mailhost.onramp.net>
Subject: Genetics/Memetics analogy
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 97 14:22:22 -0000
From: Mark Mills <mmmills@OnRamp.NET>
To: memetics <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Bill,
I know you would rather put memes in the external environment, but I'm
not comfortable with that strategy. Here is my working framework.
Please let me know how you would change this.
Mark
Genetics - Memetics analogy
Coded substrate:
Genetics: DNA double Helix
Memetics: Network of neurons
Meaningful units within the coded substrate determined by linking code
subsets to:
Genetics: protein creation
Memetics: organism behavior
Intermediates between coded substrate and code using process:
Genetics: RNA
Memetics: Ideas and experiences
High fidelity replication:
Genetics: mitosis
Memetics: unavailable
Moderate fidelity replication
Genetics: sexual reproduction
Memetics: mimesis (mimicry)
Moderate fidelity reproduction allele
Genetics: sperm, egg
Memetics: sensory experience (use of artifact generated experiences
enhances fidelity)
Organizational level:
Genetics: cellular and multicellular organisms (biology)
Memetics: groups of multicellular organisms (culture)
Genotype:
Genetics: Chromosome set
Memetics: Brain and nervous system
Phenotype:
Genetics: biological organisms (plants, animals, bacteria, etc)
Memetics: cultural organisms (families, tribes, corporations, etc)
Example: The "Blue Star" LSD Tattoo legend studied by Dave Gross.
Coded substrate: Network of neurons
Meaningful units within the coded substrate determined
by linking code subsets to: organism behavior (people repeating the
legend)
Intermediates between coded substrate and code
using process: Ideas and experiences (people experience the legend via
sensory perception)
Moderate fidelity replication: mimesis (people mimic the experience to
another individual)
Organizational level: groups of multicellular organisms (culture)
Genotype: Brain and nervous system
Phenotype: cultural organisms (families, tribes, corporations, etc).
When an individual mimics the experience of the Blue Star legend, their
fear or concern infects the cultural organism (probably family, possibly
neighborhood), increasing the stress level. If stress is already high,
the organism may become disfunctional (diseased).
The coded substrate is impossible to modify. The only remedy is
introduction of a meme whose behavior over-rides the original meme and
its behavioral expression (retelling of the legend).
The legend is relatively specific to individual cutltural organisms.
Language barriers will make spread of the legend and meme slow.
One difficulty that immediately comes to mind is the notion that the
number of genes is relatively fixed while every experience represents a
new meme. One might propose an unconscious level of mental activity with
a fixed number of memes (units of code) which process the wide variety of
memories (analogous to the digestive tract). This model would suggest
that no one can 'give' a meme away, though.
Alternatively, one could propose the notion that the brain is analogous
to an uncapped chromosome, capable of extending its 'code substrate
(double helix)' almost infinitely.
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