From: "Aaron Agassi" <agassi@erols.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: implied or inferred memes
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 13:35:30 -0400
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
> Of Raymond Recchia
> Sent: Sunday, September 12, 1999 8:03 AM
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: implied or inferred memes
>
>
>
>
>
> I was thinking the other day about how Darwin and 'Wallace?' (I
> think that
> was the other fellow) both more less simultaneously came up with the meme
> for evolution. For them to both come up with this meme they both had to
> have had a lot of the same background and certainly they were
> both British
> biologist exposed to a lot of the same ideas.
>
> This got me thinking about Susan Blackmore's description of birds
> that were
> pecking open bottles of cream. According to her, this was not a meme
> because the birds did obtain the information by imitating other birds but
> simply by learning it on their own.
>
> This caused me wonder what we would have called it if the one the things
> that was necessary for the birds to learn how to peck open cream
> bottles was
> observation of other birds pecking things other than cream bottles.
>
> Stated more abstractly, aren't there going to be situations in
> which we can
> say that if Meme A and Meme B are transmitted, then Meme C will
> arise. Meme
> C is not directly transmitted, but is an indirect consequence of the
> transmittal of A and B.
>
> In some cases Meme C would automatically be expected to arise.
> In others it
> would only have a probability. In still others, like in Darwin and the
> other fellow's situation, we might only be able to say that if A
> and B are
> present there is a likelihood that in a given POPULATION that C
> will arise.
The word that comes to mind is 'Syllogism'. Because, if two people have both
the same Major and Minor Premi, how can they but come to the same
conclusion?
>
> Raymond O. Recchia
>
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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