Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 13:44:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: Tim Rhodes <proftim@speakeasy.org>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Vertical vs. hoizontal transmission (was: JASSS Critical Review...)
In-Reply-To: <3.0.1.32.19990429102537.00a2b6bc@popmail.mcs.net>
On Thu, 29 Apr 1999, Aaron Lynch wrote:
> The fastest cases of horizontal transmission are faster than the fastest
> cases of vertical transmission, but this does not warrant any blanket
> statement that horizontal transmission is faster than vertical. A
> horizontally transmitted meme for which adherents win converts at the rate
> of 1 per 30 years can easily be out-propagated by a vertically transmitted
> meme.
If I understand you correctly, the vertical transmission of memes takes place
at a rate akin to that of the passing of genes--from parent to child
through each generation.
Is it your assertion that memetic changes in culture take place at the same
rate as genetic shifts would within a species? And if so, how do you explain
the amount of change in human culture over the last 5,000 years when compared
to the amount of genetic change over that same period?
-Tim Rhodes
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