Re: definition of meme (was Re: virus: Re : Complexity was TT)

Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Wed, 27 Nov 96 18:43:45 -0500

>Taking the position that memes exist but cannot be
>transmitted, they can only create patterns in physical reality (yes,
>objectivism again) that other memes can interpret in different ways to
>spawn new memes is just as valid as the more mainstream view that memes
>are inherently transmissable. Both theories have facts which would seem
>to support their existances.

Yes.

I have long had a problem with the idea that a meme is some discrete and
transmissable entity.

I have not had a problem with a meme as an article of consciousness, and
a meme set as a cultural determinant. It may well be that memes are
quanta of consciousness, but that they are totally resident in one
individual brain, where they are effected by language and symbols and
hormones, inter alia.

Memetics is like an 'ecology' of cognitive/artistic phenomena. There are
few disciplines uninvolved.

<TONGUE IN CHEEK>
It is the NEW SEMANTICS.
</TONGUE IN CHEEK>

:-?

******************************************************
Wade T. Smith | 'There ain't nothin' you
morbius@us1.channel1.com | shouldn't do to a dog.'
******* http://www.channel1.com/users/morbius/ *******