Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 13:14:09 +0100
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk>
Subject: Re: when is a meme selfish?
In-Reply-To: <19990827115538.AAA5635@camail2.harvard.edu>
In message <19990827115538.AAA5635@camail2.harvard.edu>, Wade T.Smith
<wade_smith@harvard.edu> writes
>>So you agree that the information encoded on the rock is the same as the
>>meme?
>
>To a cargo cult, a Toastmaster wide-slot one-touch toaster is an altar.
>There is no information in the object itself.
What this tells us is that appropriate decoding is required.
To a technologically sophisticated culture, there is probably sufficient
information in the toaster itself not only to allow the construction of
an unlimited number of similar toasters, but also to provide hints as to
the social and economic circumstances in which it was produced, and to
help towards the effective design of an indefinite number of other kinds
of appliance. The fact that the information is only available under
certain circumstances does not mean that it is not there.
-- Robin Faichney Get FREE Information at http://www.conscious-machine.com=============================================================== 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