From: "Aaron Agassi" <agassi@erols.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: i-memes and m-memes
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1999 08:43:44 -0400
In-Reply-To: <2CDFE2C8F598D21197C800C04F911B20349368@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 11:06 AM
> To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
> Subject: RE: i-memes and m-memes
>
>
> Robin:
> But it suddenly occurs to me that
> you're talking about actual patterns of neural activity -- in which case
> I agree with you! These will not be replicated either within or between
> brains. Or certainly not always, anyway. But "my" memes are not such
> patterns, because they're encoded, and that encoding will vary to some
> extent from one brain to another.
>
> Derek:
> This is the 'software' argument - which Richard Brodie and others have
> proposed. The problem I see with that is that we are inferring
> the presence
> of the software from observation of the external 'hardware'. But
> why should
> we make such an inference? Of course, computers do have
> alternatively-encoded software, but at least we know that
> conmputers do have
> some software. Remember the Victorians compared the brain to a steam
> engine......
>
> Robin:
> And it may be worth making clear: I don't believe there's any need to
> observe memes in i-form (nor, probably, any possibility of doing so).
> Memetics is a way of thinking about events and relationships, not a
> description of individual things.
Quite so! Or else, it ought to be.
>
> Derek:
> Excellent. Do you realise how unorthodox that statement is? You
> are as far
> from the memetic 'mainstream' as I am!
>
> ===============================================================
> 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