Message-Id: <199909222157.RAA03108@smtp6.mindspring.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 18:04:24 -0400
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
From: bbenzon@mindspring.com (Bill Benzon)
Subject: RE: Internal meme? - the what and the where
At 4:04 PM 9/22/99 -0400, Wade T.Smith wrote:
>>Would you further agree that an idea can be communicated from one brain to
>>another brain, sometimes with high fidelity?
>
>>From what I know, which ain't much, ain't that particular question the
>whole focus of memetics? And ain't there no real answer yet?
I don't think so. There are certainly folks who do study that question,
they tend to be psychologists of one kind or another, or have degrees in
communications (which can mean almost anything). But memetics is something
else. It's about the large-scale changes in the culture of populations.
Depending on how you think the whole process works,this may or may not
require high fidelity brain-to-brain communication. As people know, I
don't believe that memes are in the brain, so I find this concern a little
beside the point. As long as the song you sing is like the one I sing I
don't much care whether or not your mental machinery is doing exactly what
mine is. But even if I were a mental memeticist, high fidelity
brain-to-brain transmission would only be a starting point.
Bill B
William L. Benzon 201.217.1010
708 Jersey Ave. Apt. 2A bbenzon@mindspring.com
Jersey City, NJ 07302 USA http://www.newsavanna.com/wlb/
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