>Color is of course an element of that reality that put us all here. Our
>perception of it is of course in the brain. But you must grant that what
>is color out there is not the perception of it. That truth is
>self-evident.
And applying that to memes...
>And while a study of photons and wavelength provides us with some
>knowledge about how the eye itself works, only fMRI and its cousin
>techniques provide us with studies of the working brain.
If I want to make the skintones on photographic print look correct
(something I do qute often, actually), a knowledge of color theory and RBG
light will take me sooooo much farther than knowledge of how the eye works
ever can. You're after something, Wade, but it isn't memes.
>Is not the study of perception a core pursuit?
So you've become a subjectivist in your old age, hmmm? More interested in
the /perception/ of events than in the events themselves? Okay by me, but
getting back to memes, although you might use fMRI to find the perception of
a meme or the duplication of a behavior, neither of those is the meme. Any
more than the perception of green is green (~9x10^15 Hz) light.
Memes exist as information[1]. Period.
-Prof. Tim
[1] Information: differences in matter-energy (inked pages, sound waves
traveling through air, electrical current in a copper wire, etc.)