Re: virus: One More Time, From the Top

michael heraghty (michael@futurenet.ie)
Sat, 15 Aug 1998 10:42:03 +0100


Robin Fahinchey wrote
>Of course, memes are absolutely dependent on the behaviour
of individuals. Back when humans produced no more cultural
artifacts than any other species, memes were nothing but
behaviour! And one that exists only in a book, having been
forgotten by everyone that once hosted it (or they're dead),
is certainly in a state of extreme dormancy until someone
reads it. I just don't want to say that a dormant meme has
ceased to be a meme, until it suddenly becomes one again.
But I guess this issue could be purely semantic.

************
You're right - to suggest that a meme could be 'dormant' when it is 'trapped' in a book or some other cultural form is rather silly. Would a meme contained in a book be dormant whenever it wasn't being read? Would a meme contained in a sentence be dormant when one was reading the preceding sentence, but active when the sentence was being read and then dormant again once the sentence had been passed over?

What if someone reads one word of the sentence, then has a cup of tea, then reads another word, then goes for a walk, etc...

That seems to be the suggestion, but it misses the point about memes. Memes have no awareness of time - they are just memes. They are equally dependent on minds AND cultural 'encapsulation'. Without one or the other, they are, by definintion, NOT memes.

A cultural encapsualtion, on its own, is not a meme. Just as a thought, on its own, is not a meme. Only when a thought is expressed in culture is there a meme.