Message-Id: <3.0.5.32.19990828122115.00849a90@rongenet.sk.ca>
Date: Sat, 28 Aug 1999 12:21:15 -0600
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk, <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
From: Lloyd Robertson <hawkeye@rongenet.sk.ca>
Subject: RE: when is a meme selfish?
In-Reply-To: <NBBBIIDKHCMGAIPMFFPJOEBPDJAA.richard@brodietech.com>
At 06:50 AM 28/08/99 -0700, Richard Brodie wrote:
>My whole point was to show why the label "meme" (Dawkins B/Dennett/Brodie
>definition as information in a mind) was interesting. The information "Jesus
>Saves" in the mind of a Christian evangelist influences more people to have
>that information as part of their mental programming in the future. The same
>information on a rock in Morse code at the bottom of the sea has little if
>any effect on the future. The former is a meme; the latter isn't.
Does a tree that falls in the middle of a forest where there is no one to
hear it emit sound? Maybe we are playing semantics here. I would suggest
the morse code message on the rock in the bottom of the ocean is a meme, it
just isn't a very efficient replicator.
Lloyd
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