Re: [ontolog-forum] Dennett on the Darwinism of Memes

[John Bottoms <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Pavithra,

I may not have remembered his wording correctly in the use of "word". Also, it is a difficulty of linguistics that "thing" often gets used when a better selection would be "entity". However, the audience understood the intent of the question. Words come and go and likewise memes come and go. They share some characteristics and there is a shoot-from-the-hip impulse to put them in a lexicon or dictionary.

Another view might be that memes are types of propositions that need to be evaluated. They could be classified into "indeterminate" until they are evaluated. Dennett does recognize that memes are "good" or "bad", and I suppose we should accept that they can be resurrected. One theory I have is that the term "meme" applies to atomic entities that have particular attributes or properties that  can be generalized or rationalized. If that is true then we should be able to build classifiers for memes. A question for exploration is whether that property can be understood in a way that makes sense or is useful.

Your view of giraffe evolution is referred to as Lamarckian inheritance and it survives today only as a weakened theory. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarckism)

-John Bottoms
 Concord, MA USA
On 4/9/2013 8:39 PM, Pavithra wrote:

Hello,

Words are not things.  "Words" representation things if they are nouns.  memes are ideas that spreads from person to person??

Darwinism and theory of evolution explains how living organisms evolve over  few generations according to the needs/usage etc. According to him Giraffe has long neck, because they keep stretching their neck to eat branches and eventually it caused a genetic mutation to  aid survival -- a process known as "natural selection." These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation.

 Darwin does not take cross pollination ( for lack of better word)  of plants and animals and between different species that happens in one generation and produce offspring of  blended types  into consideration.   A Lion and Tiger may have a Liger for a child.   You can actually cut a branch of one fruit tree and put it  another fruit tree branch stub and tie it up and it may bear the fruit of the first tree kind..  There is all sorts of intervention that happens to change the way species of plants and animal world to evolve  into  something new and different not only by genetic mutation due to thousands of years of  usage or need for survival but due to cross pollination.   I know this is a thesis for genetic decoding not fiction.  

I still have to read the book listed below..

Pavithra   
 

---

From: John Bottoms <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: [ontolog-forum] <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, April 9, 2013 5:28 PM
Subject: [ontolog-forum] Dennett on the Darwinism of Memes

Daniel Dennett's next book will be out in a few weeks and I had the
opportunity to hear him talk about how memes obey the tenets of Darwinism.

The title of his book is, "Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking".
(not available yet,
http://www.amazon.com/Intuition-Pumps-Other-Tools-Thinking/dp/0393082067)

His argument starts by asking if words are things. Then he argues that
if words are things then we should consider memes as things also. He
goes on to illustrate that memes follow the basic three principles of
Darwinism.

His arguments are compelling and I wonder where they belong in the grand
ontologies of entities. Are memes a new construct, or do memes simply
replicate a known construct?

-John Bottoms
  FirstStar Systems
  Concord, MA USA

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