From: "Aaron Agassi" <agassi@erols.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: i-memes and m-memes
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 08:24:57 -0400
In-Reply-To: <2CDFE2C8F598D21197C800C04F911B20349374@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: Thursday, September 02, 1999 7:12 AM
> To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
> Subject: RE: i-memes and m-memes
>
>
>
> Aaron:
> A potential X is something of an inherent quality to become X. A
> prospective
> X is something that may yet conceivably serve as an X, for whatever
> happenstance. Potential X are distinguished from utter non-X.
> Prospective X
> need not be. All phenomena are memetic. Anything may prove
> perceivable and
> conceivable.
>
> Derek:
> As far as I can see your thesis is based around a few trivial distinctions
> between potential and prospective and between replicator and replicated.
Actually, it's based upon rejecting false distinctions of yours that confuse
matters and accomplish nothing. I reject Essentialism. Your statement about
memes are reminiscent Voltaire's parody of Aristotle 'The Imaginary
Patient', in which the fatuous doctor proclaims that sedatives put patients
to sleep by virtue of their formative properties! You'd have us accept that
memes memiphy by virtue of their memetic properties. You look for the mythic
Essence of the meme, rather than simply studying memetic replication.
>
> Aaron:
> In this an artifact is no different than a found object. Just
> as an Archeologist decodes a Greek urn, re-encoding memetically the
> impression from the experience of decoding, into their own brain, likewise
> the Geologist decodes the strata of the rocks, encoding the
> impressions from
> the experience decoding into their own brain. The same goes for events,
> phenomena, and behavior, all observed and even interacted with.
> Reception is
> perception. Polly-directional communication is interaction.
>
> Derek:
> This is just rhetorical flourish.
Why so?
>
> Aaron:
> You might as well seek to identify a wind entity.
>
> Derek:
> I think I just found one. Sorry, Aaron, I just can't follow your
> argument.
> I've tried hard, but now I'm going to have to give up. And now
> the weather
> forecast..
>
> Aaron:
> Weather is an ongoing event.
>
> ===============================================================
> 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
>
===============================================================
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