Date: Mon, 07 Jun 1999 08:50:42 +0200
From: "Gatherer, D. (Derek)" <D.Gatherer@organon.nhe.akzonobel.nl>
Subject: RE: Memetics not tautological or circular
To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Richard:
Now I'm lost again. In what way is a learned behavior, taught from father to
son and in schools around the world, NOT memetic? Are you claiming that the
methods of driving are not replicated?
Derek:
Sorry, I was being unclear in my use of the word 'memetic'. What I should
have said is that learning to drive is not memetic in the Dawkins B/thought
contagionist sense - because the internal mental construct in the
experienced driver is different to that of the learner. It is however,
meemtic in the behaviourist sense, and indeed is an almost archetypal
example of behavioural imitational memetics. A similar point might be made
about learning chess. It is known that experienced chess players have an
entirely different conception of the game to novices. The evidence for this
rests on experiments where masters and novices are required to remember
certain game situations. When one learns chess, a behaviour is replicated,
but not a mental content.
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit