Subject: Re: Dawkins' Mutation Test for Replicators
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 15:42:58 -0400
From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
>Thus you do not write-off these areas since understanding their structure
>can aid in understanding memetic processes, surely that is what you want to
>do?
Ah.... Belief systems are of course memetic processes, or can be
subjected to memetic processes. Yes.
But, I must call you to stop when you ask us to use the conclusions of
these belief systems as methodological imperatives.
The placebo effect is almost entirely a memetic phenomenon, but
homeopathy is only a marketing technique to sell distilled water, and we
_can_ study this marketing technique, but we have to call the distilled
water 'distilled water'.
Yes, no?
- Wade
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