From: "John C. 'Buck' Field" <info@fieldoperative.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: comparison/contrast of memes and engrams
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 16:50:13 -0500
In-Reply-To: <B0006508352@hamextw01.htcomp.net>
"Commonality" seems easily measured and defined when compared to the introduction of
"organism success". What procedure would measure such a metric?
Cultivate A Healthy Mind With Reason, Empathy, And Clear Vision.
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>-----Original Message-----
>From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
>Of Mark M. Mills
>Sent: Thursday, October 14, 1999 2:33 PM
>To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Subject: Re: comparison/contrast of memes and engrams
>
>
>Tim,
>
>At 10:19 PM 10/13/99 -0700, you wrote:
>>Mark,
>>
>>What would describe as the the fitness landscape of an L-meme?
>
>There are probably a lot of ways to do this. The following is the first to
>come to mind.
>
>Consider an L-meme version of Kaufmann's N-K fitness landscape.
>
>N=L-memes in neural system
>K=the number of linkages between different L-memes contributing to a given
>behavior.
>
>Fitness is simply a measure a group's average ability to produce viable
>offspring. Alternatively, fitness could be defined as a groups average
>ability to produce offspring with the same L-meme.
>
>For experimental purposes, L-memes are defined to be patterns of synapse
>gates (on/off) capable of producing an isomorphic signal response to a
>given stimulus for arbitrary time period (day, month, year). Since synapse
>gates appear to require 'reset' periods, there would be a need to limit
>testing to 'awake and alert' periods. The study analyzing cat optical
>neural signals which I referred to a few days ago suggests a possible
>testing technique. Less invasive testing procedures would be useful.
>
>Just as genes are identified by protein production, the L-meme is
>identified by behavior production (in this case a neural impulse).
>
>Neither K nor N would be easy to estimate. If one considers gross neural
>cell counts and assumes a fixed percentage of nerve cells participating in
>L-meme patterns (10%?), then one can quickly come up with N for any animal.
> K may be relatively static for various taxa. For example, K may be much
>lower for reptiles when compared to mammals. Humans may have taken an
>evolutionary path that expanded K above that of other primates, expanding
>the N-K landscape.
>
>One might look at N-K for people labeled 'autistic' and compare their
>abilities to the population in general.
>
>In terms of the Wilson review of Meme Machine, I'm avoiding the problem of
>saying the openning bars of Beethoven's 5th symphony are a powerful meme
>because they are common. I've defined fitness of the L-meme in terms of
>organism success.
>
>I could go on, but I'll let you pick the direction.
>
>Mark
>
>
>===============================================================
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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