Subject: RE: memes and dancing
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 1999 14:05:06 -0500
From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
On 12/23/99 12:55, Bruce Jones said this-
>Where does the individual exist
>and how do you explain such terms as nationalism, pride, community,
>fellowship, common goal, and religion?
The individual is what is born. All the rest follows, and, yes, all the
rest is environmentally determined and interacted with.
This does not mean you _leave_ anything behind in Texas (although you
probably should have...) but that you do need to behaviorally adapt with
what you've got to Boston.
In most cases, unless your genetics are severely impaired, you will, as a
homo sapiens and a usanian living contemporeanously, not have to adapt
very hard to what nationalism, pride, community, fellowship, common
goals, and religion are in Boston.
But, what about Borneo...?
Or to the next family reunion, or tomorrow's shopping trip, or the next
lover.
The dance is born in us- the music is environmental.
We, you, some of us, may want to call this environment a memetic one. The
ability to speak vs. the language form of French, for another tack. I see
it as an accident of environment and behavioral adaptations, over time.
I really see no need for a memetic mechanism.
But, also, I ain't but a nobody, but I _do_ see some need for what is
called 'memetic' analysis, as a valid means of interpreting this
adaptation.
But the meme itself I have totally given up on.
- Wade
===============================================================
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