From: "Tim Rhodes" <proftim@speakeasy.org>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Memetics or artefactics?
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1998 02:24:09 -0700
Mario writes:
>As I tried to explain. When we want to pursue some analogy between culture
and
>biology, which is one of the hallmarks of memetics (isn't it?), we can ask
which
>cultural phenomenon resembles most the physical gene, with respect to
having
>informational content, being replicable by a processor, having high copy
>fidelity, etc.
Do we need to stick so closely to the analogy? And why? Isn't recognizing
that something (a meme by any other name) evolves--replicates, mutates, and
selects--quite enough? Should we remain tied to the analogy if it fails to
serve us as an accurate description?
>Is it Derek or Dereck? Beware for mutant memes!
And even thus is a foundling meme born anew!
-Tim
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