Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 20:41:51 -0400
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: "Mark M. Mills" <mmills@htcomp.net>
Subject: Re: Meme Machine reviewed in Science
In-Reply-To: <4fcdf7f9.24c108e2@aol.com>
JS and Chris,
JS>>>A Gatherer-meme is an abstraction that causes neural configurations...
and
JS>a variety of other physical changes.<<
JS>
JS>What causes the neural configurations?=A0 The abstraction in some
disembodied=20
JS>sense? - or an embodied mind thinking about the abstraction?
CL>Beg to differ.... a little.. if the concept of an object is built-in to
our=20
CL>neurology so there lies the raw beginnings of 'a belief' in that all
beliefs
CL>are objects, they are self-contained and so can develop internally with=
no=20
CL>external interaction; the moment you assert a belief you are making a
'cut',
CL>you are distinguishing a strong preference for 'this' over 'that'.
I don't want to get into reinventing the Gatherer or Lynch memes. The
definitions are both in publications here on JOM-EMIT. =20
Gatherer, "Why the `Thought Contagion' Metaphor is Retarding the Progress=20
of Memetics"
<http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1998/vol2/gatherer_d.html>http://www.cpm.
mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1998/vol2/gatherer_d.html
Lynch, "Units, Events and Dynamics in Memetic Evolution",=20
<http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit/1998/vol2/lynch_a.html>http://www.cpm.mm
u.ac.uk/jom-emit/1998/vol2/lynch_a.html
I don't want to lose the context. I brought up these issues to spotlight
complaints in a review of Blackmore's Meme Machine. I'm asserting that=
these
complaints are common to reviews of memetics written by scientists. =
Further,
I'm attributing the complaints to use of the Gatherer-meme definition.
Let's put the definitions aside for a moment. It would be silly for me to=
go
on without knowing your opinions regarding the status of memetics in
scientific
communities. That's what I'd like to know. How do you think memetics=
stands
in the larger scientific community? What do you think is working to=
advance
the acceptance of memetics as a science, something on par with genetics?
Thanks,
Mark
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