From: "John C. 'Buck' Field" <info@fieldoperative.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: implied or inferred memes
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 1999 17:06:11 -0500
Has your failure to observe predictions based on memetics been maintained through a
reading of Blackmore's book? It is sprinkled with interesting predictions which she
explicitly labels as appropriate for laboratory confirmation, such as several I read
yesterday about confirmation of altruism based on memetic advantage on page 173. This
suggests a valid hypothesis accounting for historically problematic behavior.
A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are for; Carpe Diem!
Buck Field: Project Management, Writing, and Documentation
www.fieldoperative.com
>-----Original Message-----
>From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
>Of Wade T.Smith
>Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 1999 2:32 PM
>To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Subject: RE: implied or inferred memes
>
>
>>The breakthrough in memetics is in extending Darwinian evolution to culture.
>
>Or the great mistake.
>
>>one of which is the ability to predict that ideas will spread not because
>>they are "good ideas", but because they contain "good memes" such as
>>danger, food and sex that push our evolutionary buttons and force us to
>>pay attention to them.
>
>This 'ability to predict' is something about which I am highly, highly,
>skeptical. And my skepticism is in large part my basis for moving away
>from this stance.
>
>If asked now about the proliferation of pornographic sites on the Web,
>I'm sure we would all have said, well, of course, look at what happened
>with VCR's. But, did anyone have an inkling about VCR's? This 'ability to
>predict' is indeed what a science should have. I have failed, so far, to
>see any ability on the part of memetics to predict anything, and this is
>precisely the sort of experiments that should be ongoing- predictive
>ones.
>
>- 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