RE: virus: memes to study

MarXidad (marxidad@idirect.com)
Thu, 5 Mar 1998 23:39:29 -0500


I won't disagree that memes exist only in minds, either. Simply put, a
meme is a self-replicating idea, and ideas are purely mental entities. But
to avoid confusion, what do you call the packet of information while it's
going from one mind to another? Is it in a way "encoded" in physical media
(i.e., a formation of electrons or ink trails to make words), or can it be
considered a "transitional meme"? Sort of like virtual particles in that
sense. We already have a word for the medium itself--a vector--but what is
the content then, if not a meme?

> re. contagion/diffusion (what works? what doesn't? why?), but am not
> sure we need to introduce memetics in order to pursue these studies.
> Might we be able to conduct them entirely within the confines of
> psychology?

Although psychology is a big part of it, I don't think it's enough on it's
own. Psychology doesn't necessarily account for things on a social or
cultural scale, nor will it help to find the relationship between memes and
neurons. Memetics is kind of like socioneuropsychology or something like
that.

> We seem to be talking about 3 different levels here.
> A gross analogy: If I want to affect my brain (be contaminated
> by a meme) I can take a pill (see a TV ad). The pill can be presented
> in several shapes and colors (FX,jump cuts, etc.), which will affect
> my desire to take it. The pill is not
> the meme: it's the effect of the pill which is the meme.

No, the effect of the pill would be more akin to the behavior brought on
by the meme (buying the product or telling someone else). In this case, the
medication itself is the meme, and the pill is the packaging.
"(be contaminated by a meme)"--to be contaminated by the drug, not the
behavior, right?

And so on,
/_/ / /o / /
/ / / / / / Mark
/ / /) / / / _ http://www.marxidad.com/glub
/ \/\ \_/\/\_X/ ^^^^

"If 50 million people believe a foolish thing,
it is still a foolish thing"

-Anatole France