From: Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: RE: Internal meme?
Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 21:15:10 +0100
Message-Id: <99100421244505.00380@faichney>
On Mon, 04 Oct 1999, John C. 'Buck' Field wrote:
>>>Yes it has. Is there any portion of this great length that you feel i=
s
>>relevant, and
>>>if so, where is it and why does it relate?
>>
>>I'm afraid I don't like your tone.
>
>This herring brings up a valid point: Perhaps more diplomatic phrasing =
would
>encourage more productive dialogue. As I said before: my priority is kn=
owledge,
>therefore sometimes concern for popularity is eclipsed by a passion for =
learning. I
>will try to give this failing more attention, and I apologize for treati=
ng you without
>the sensitivity that anyone deserves.
>
>>But I'm sure you're perfectly capable of
>>finding your own way.
>
>Your certainty may not be well founded ;^), but I would appreciate at le=
ast a clue
>regarding what I should be looking for...
>
>Would you Pretty-Please-With-Sugar-On-Top explain your criticism of my m=
eme
>definition?
Well, since you ask so nicely...
I am not about to comprehensively recapitulate that discussion, and I'm a=
fraid I
don't have a note of the subject heading(s) under which it occurred. How=
ever:
there has traditionally been a split here between the supporters of "inte=
rnal"
and "external" memes. The former are generally considered to consist of
information in the brain, and the latter, information encoded in behaviou=
r
and/or artefacts. Only one regular here that I'm aware of (RB) consisten=
tly
talks about "the mind", and I don't recall much straightforward identific=
ation
of memes with ideas here, unlike, for instance, the virus list. Recently=
a
third position emerged, supported by Tim Rhodes and myself among others, =
which
sees memes as confined neither to brains nor behaviour/artefacts, but enc=
oded
(differently) in both. The briefest case for which is: how could a meme =
make
it from one brain to another unless via behaviour, and vice versa?
Hope that helps! Also, that noone considers it TOO misrepresentative.
-- Robin Faichney The Prime Source of MetaInformation -- http://www.conscious-machine.com=============================================================== 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