Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19980409083926.00a3ddfc@popmail.mcs.net>
Date: Thu, 09 Apr 1998 08:39:26 -0500
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net>
Subject: Re: List of meme definitions
In-Reply-To: <352BF07D.F762F804@esosoft.com>
At 04:47 PM 4/8/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Aaron Lynch wrote:
>>
>> I'm going to ask that people responding to topics raised in the "List of
>> meme definitions" thread (or responses thereto) keep the subject heading as
>> "Re: List of meme definitions," especially if the post calls attention to
>> another definition. That way, people who want to cull a list of definitions
>> from the thread can do so more easily. If I had not restored the subject
>> line in my response to Josip, then the definition he called our attention
>> to would not have appeared in the thread.
>
>Yes, thank you Aaron! I started this thread so I could assemble a list
>of meme definitions for everyone. I think it would be a useful thing for
>all of us. Besides getting a raw list together, Paul Marsden and myself
>plan to review the various meme concepts in a separate paper.
I look forward to seeing the paper. Feel free to quote my material from
this discussion.
Changing the "meme" definition is often a way of changing the subject. So
it is little surprise that we have seen new subject headers coming with new
meme definitions.
People's reasons for wanting to change the subject by changing the
definition of "meme" are interesting, but not always science-driven. New
definitions are often an attempt to either avert attention from
evolutionary replicator theory of mental information, or to attract
attention to some other (often valid) subject or sub-topic. I prefer only
definitional changes that give technical clarification and more accurate
theory, or that reflect such new fundamental discoveries as have happened
with the molecular basis of genes.
--Aaron Lynch
http://www.mcs.net/~aaron/thoughtcontagion.html
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