From: "Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: Whales and the Memetic Group definitions
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 1999 14:05:31 -0700
Wade,
Memes are about self-replication. In other words, some cultural phenomena
spread through society once they achieve a critical mass or are packaged
effectively. None of the disciplines you've mentioned addresses that very
crucial core of memetics.
I guess some part of me admires your idealism in struggling for years to
understand memetics without reading books about the subject. But some other
part of me thinks you're just trolling...
Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com
Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme"
Free newsletter! http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
-----Original Message-----
From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
Of Wade T.Smith
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 1999 1:32 PM
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Whales and the Memetic Group definitions
On 9/30/99 19:12, Robert G. Grimes said this-
>Just the other day I taught my little Lhasa Apso puppy how to sit up and
beg.
>It only took a short period of less than an hour and now she is totally
>irresistible and has extended the teaching from getting food (the original
>reward) to other things like a good massage, the scratching of her tummy
>with the toe of my shoe, etc.
It is precisely this sort of _behavior_ that moves me to wonder, and I do
wonder, why anyone thinks a 'meme' is necessary here. Why not just
abandon it, and go back to where it all starts- in innate genetic and
developmental abilities, with no need for the additive we are calling
memes?
And I won't even try to get into why I think 'asking the parrot' is
anthropomorphic horse spittle....
- Wade
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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