virus: Nursery Rhyme Memes

B. Lane Robertson (metaphy@hotmail.com)
Tue, 04 Aug 1998 23:34:37 PDT

I assume that nursery rhymes are one of the best
examples of a particular type of meme (memes that
relate to oral tradition). Still, upon writing
this I find myself wondering how to describe the
nursery rhyme as an *example* of a meme rather
than saying that they *are* the meme. Though my
point is that the organization of ideas according
to patterns which evolve and are replicated might
be expressed in a very succinct fashion in such a
form-- which stresses organization, patterns,
evolution, and being passed on.

Does someone want to do a study of the basic ideas
transmitted by nursery rhymes and the patterns
these ideas are organized into, noting the
evolution of such patterns and their propensity to
being passed on (in specific situations)? I think
such a study would give a good indication of what,
exactly, the basic ideas and patterns might be.

To give Wade the benefit of a doubt, I am not
opposed to saying that these "patterns" would ALSO
be in evidence in the organization of neural
networks, brainwave patterns, and even physical
structures. (Yes, I am saying that brains would
be organized into "nursery rhyme" patterns. If
this were shown to be possible, what else could we
attribute this to EXCEPT memes?).

B. Lane Robertson
Indiana, USA
http://www.window.to/mindrec
Bio: http://members.theglobe.com/bretthay
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