Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 15:25:46 +1100
From: John Wilkins <wilkins@wehi.EDU.AU>
Subject: What's in a Meme? Reprise and paper - comments welcome
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At the request of some who think I have something to add to this debate, I
have written the first draft of a focal paper for the Journal of Memetics,
called "What's in a Meme? Reflections from the perspective of the history
and philosophy of evolutionary biology."
In this paper I argue that memes are defined by the selection pressures
they are subjected to, and that memes are the smallest unit of
sociocultural information relative to a selection process that has
favourable or unfavourable selection bias that exceeds its rate of
endogenous change. Those who are familiar with evolutionary biology will
recognise the reference.
I invite any and all (constructive) comment. It is available in Web format
-
<http://www.wehi.edu.au/~wilkins/waim/WAIM.html> - or as an Acrobat PDF
file, which I can email to you (~220k) on request.
Thanks
John Wilkins
Head of Communication Services
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
<http://www.wehi.edu.au/~wilkins>
<mailto:wilkins@wehi.edu.au>
===============================================================
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