Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19980804182227.006e8654@popmail.mcs.net>
Date: Tue, 04 Aug 1998 18:22:27 -0500
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Aaron Lynch <aaron@mcs.net>
Subject: Rebuttal to Michael Best Letter Now Online
My rebuttal to the letter by Michael Best is online at
http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1998/vol2/lynch_a2.html,
"Rationales for Mathematical Modeling, and Points of Terminology."
In a nutshell, I assert that:
1. Best was simply wrong to assert that Campbell (1974) had used the term
"mnemon."
2. The equations in the Units, Events, and Dynamics paper *do* pertain to
real phenomena.
3. The equations do not contain or require discrete time.
4. Indexing child inculcation and birth rates to age *is* warranted.
5. Discussing average transmission rates rather than per individual
probablilities *is* valid.
6. The equations *do* handle, to a first order, the cross-inculcation
effects of biparental families.
7. One cannot coherently demand both greater simplicity and a more
comprehensive model.
8. Developing equations directly from concepts of fertility rates,
inculcation rates, etc. rather than from previous works *is* legitimate.
9. Nothing in my paper suggests peer to peer transmission of forgetting
events.
10. Works by me, Dawkins, and Campbell deserve more careful readings than
they were apparently given in preparation for the "Memes on Memes -
Critiques of Memetics Models" letter.
--Aaron Lynch
http://www.mcs.net/~aaron/thoughtcontagion.html
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