Subject: Re: memes and dancing
Date: Wed, 22 Dec 1999 14:27:07 -0500
From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
On 12/22/99 10:44, Robin Faichney said this-
>Surely the place to separate things is not within any one of them, but at
>the points between them?
OK, granted. Where are these points?
>In other words, you are saying "the explanation's not memetic, it's
>genetic" --
>so you see memetic explanations as alternatives to genetic ones, as I said.
OK, yes- I see, so far, no reason to add the multiplicative identity
known, so far, as a meme. From what I am seeing of cognitive and
behavioral studies of the brain, and indeed, from conclusions about
imitation and birdsong, I see no reason to introduce a separate, cultural
quantum at all.
Cultural evolution seems, to me, to be a myth. A happy, anthropomorphic
one, yes, but specious and unneeded.
But, if you want to call birdsong memetic and cultural, rather than
genetic and developmental, then I want some separation for where those
points are. So far, dance could be just a human form of birdsong, and so
far, I see no need to introduce a memetic mechanism for either.
But I also know I appear horribly dense about this.
- Wade
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