From: "James McComb" <jamesmccomb@hotmail.com>
To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: Context as transformation rules
Date: Sat, 4 Sep 1999 18:48:17 +1000
_____________Context as transformation rules
Under the influence of Bill Spight, I have figured out a way to represent
'context' in the i/m logic.
Memes are units of information that undergo transformations from one form to
another. Understanding memetic information in the light of a particular
context is really transforming it under a particular transformation rule.
Symbolically:
m --t-> i
where the arrow labelled t represents a transformation rule.
Suppose we consider a simple case of i-form replication:
i1 --t1-> m1 --t2-> i2
It is obvious that in a case of genuine replication:
i2 = i1 and hence
t2 = -t1 (i.e. --t2-> = <-t1--)
Robin Faichney called this 'the reciprocity of transformation' conception of
identity. We might say t1 is a encoding rule and t2 is a decoding rule. But
what of replications with an odd number of transformations, when the
encoding-decoding terminology is inappropriate? For example:
i1 --t1-> m1 --t2-> m2 --t3-> i2
Now, in a case of genuine replication:
i2 = i1 and hence
t3 = -(t1 + t2)
because the total amount of transformation must be zero (otherwise i1
wouldn't exactly equal i2).
If this is reminding you of vector arithmetic, it was meant to. In fact, in
the 3-transformation case you can construct a 'triangle of vectors' of
sorts. The t1, t2, and t3 arrows are the sides of the triangle. The i1, m1,
m2, and i2 forms are the points of the triangle (i1 and i2 are the same
point because of the i1=i2 restriction).
Hope the symbolism comes in handy!
---James McComb
===============================================================
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