From: "Aaron Agassi" <agassi@erols.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: Encoding and Decoding
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1999 11:49:26 -0400
In-Reply-To: <37D3D01E.FA4A26AB@pacbell.net>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
> Of Bill Spight
> Sent: Monday, September 06, 1999 10:31 AM
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: Encoding and Decoding
>
>
> Dear Robin,
>
> Robin:
>
> A more important point, that only just occurred to me, is that we
> shouldn't really be looking for replication of *forms* because
> the replicators are the memes, that the forms carry in code.
What we are talking about is content. If the meme is not the artifact, is
not the brain cell, is not even the neurological activity, then it one must
question the Epistemic Methodology of searching for it with PET and CAT
scans.
A brain scanning device, quite possibly a superlative brain scanning device
yet to be invented, may help to identify encoding structure. But Memetics
incorporates the problem of Information Theory of re-encoding information
content, or meaning, differently. Thus meaning, or content, remains to be
isolated.
And where is meaning/content to be found and isolated? -short of Platonic
Heaven?
What is needed are tests for meaning. Linguistics and Logic offer some tests
of that sort. Psychology and Mythology also offer a set of meanings. -In
other words, culture. Philosophy, and Science.
So, what makes a statement meaningful? What makes an image meaningful? What
makes a moment meaningful? (Remember, I still hold Nature to be memetic.)
Information content, or meaning, is abstract. Tangible objects and phenomena
are only vessels. Memetics becomes part of Philosophy. But not necessarily
Metaphysics. Because a testable definition may be possible.
For a moment, a personal experience, to be meaningful, supports the view of
memes as brain artifact. But inter-subjectivity supports the view that memes
can be understood otherwise. Memetics, after all, deals with communication.
>
> Bill:
>
> Ah, the polymorphous P-meme! <s>
>
> If you mean "looking for" metaphorically, I am with you. But
> methodologically the only replication that we can verify are forms.
>
> Best,
>
> Bill
>
> ===============================================================
> This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
> Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
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> 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