Re: virus: Random thoughts & more poor analogies!

Nathaniel Hall (natehall@WORLDNET.ATT.NET)
Sat, 15 Aug 1998 19:29:05 -0600

Wade T.Smith wrote:
>
> >the ease at which memes can
> >cross different "species"
>
> Regardless of how sloppily, or how distinctly, or whether you feel meme
> is a concept worth bothering with, it still applies to homo sapiens
> sapiens, and to homo sapiens sapiens only, until further evidence is
> presented. And there is no evidence that a meme can be transferred across
> species, unless you are _so_ sloppy in your definition that training a
> dog to fetch your paper is what you would call a memetic behavior....

> Wade T. Smith

Looks like I need to clarify a little here. If I have two creatures of
different species that means they cannot mate and have viable offspring.
The information bundles of which they are initiated, that is their
genes, cannot mix therefore. Memes too can be wrapped up in information
bundles. A religion, a language or even a corporation can be thought of
as a bundled set of mutually dependent memes. I put species in quotes
because there is no word out there to express what I needed too. That is
a particular kind of mutually dependent meme bundle that cannot exchange
information with any other kind of mutually dependent meme bundles. The
meme equivalent of a species. I did not mean to imply in any way that
memes are occurring in anything other than in the minds of people.

Nate Hall