From: <JakeSapien@aol.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 17:49:15 EDT
Subject: Re: Measuring Memes
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
In a message dated 6/1/99 4:40:50 PM Central Daylight Time,
JakeSapien@aol.com writes:
>>>> How about persistence of inconsistent notions? The literature in
cognitive
psychology shows that inconsistencies tend to be reconstructed in memory
tests so that they are more logical. People have trouble remembering
inconsistencies. This suggests that inconsistent memes would be less likely
to survive repetition.<<
I would think that they would be less likely to be replicated by the same
individual.
>> If untrue memes can survive while inconsistent ones
tend not to survive, does this suggest that consistency is crucial to the
nature of memes?<<
I would think that a meme's consistency with other memes would be more
crucial to whether a meme would survive and be replicated by one individual.
-JS<<
And of course consistency would set a more natual criterion to divide memes
into competing groups ("memeplexes" if we may), rather than on the basis of
"truth" or "untruth".
-JS
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