From: "Aaron Agassi" <agassi@erols.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: i-memes and m-memes
Date: Wed, 1 Sep 1999 12:47:15 -0400
In-Reply-To: <2CDFE2C8F598D21197C800C04F911B20349359@DELTA.newhouse.akzonobel.nl>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
> Of Gatherer, D. (Derek)
> Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 5:41 AM
> To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
> Subject: RE: i-memes and m-memes
>
>
> Aaron:
> It's simple:
> If there are replicators and nonreplicators, then replication becomes a
> facet of the thing that replicates, in short: it's Essence. And
> Essence not
> yet manifest is called Potentiality. And we're in an Aristotelian mess,
> explaining nothing!
>
> But if replication is an event, then we can avoid that snare. No
> replicators
> Vs non replicators, but only phenomena sometimes culminating in
> replication,
> but not usually. And there are various possible reasons for this. That is
> the inquiry of Memetics.
>
> Derek:
> So when replication occurs, what do we call that thing that has
> replicated?
Successful. And a good "potential meme" (sic) may even be praised as *well
adapted*, even before being put to the test. Why do we need a term
denotative of quality in and of itself? That presupposes that any phenomena
that replicates is different in quality from one that has not, as yet,
replicated memetically. Things that replicate genetically are different from
things that don't. But perhaps the analogy breaks down when carried to
ideas, including perceptions of real things. Animals actively breed, but
memetically, even passive phenomena, with regard to their replication, are
copied none the less. That includes behaviors and artifacts that are
multiple generations from whatever origin.
The distinction may be in relative reproductive success. Air flows around
all manners of objects, but only some of them glide. A falling grand piano
is a bad airplane. A seagull, wings outstretched, is a better one. A bird
flapping it's wings is even more unique, by being actively rather than
passively aerodynamic. Aerodynamics seeks to analyze why all this may be.
Likewise, a catchy tune is a better replicator... No, it's not a replicator,
it's a replicatee! A passive parasite! We do the replicating. Reality does
not generate truth (correspondence to reality)! We seek truth. Another
species, after all, aliens perhaps, might conceivably find the same melody
confusing and forgettable. To continue, a catchy tune or a juicy bit of
gossip is a better replicatee (among humans) than an annoying and badly
formulated algebraic equation that students are eager to put behind them as
soon as the course is concluded.
And by way of a demonstration, differing character of people determines some
salient particulars of how they gossip. This is neural and social
environment at work in selection and mutation. Yet, gossip is an activity,
Objective reality is, memetically, passive.
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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>
===============================================================
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