Hi Roger and all,
Because of a glitch in my e-mail, I didn't get Roger's Saturday post, so
didn't allude to it in my reply. I've now gone into the web site to
check it out.
Great post Roger, I agree with many of your ideas. However I am having
trouble with the part on "imitation":
> Memes arise due to man's unique ability to imitate. This is an
extremely
> difficult process that we take for granted . . .
Isn't the ability of DNA to replicate itself the same as imitation?
Does the old DNA replicate itself, or is it imitated?
This smells like yet another red herring to me.
The ability of a pattern to perpetuate/replicate is the key to the
continued existance of that pattern, at whatever level. It may even be
the very definition of a pattern, for failure to persist is the
antithesis of existance.
>, but that is rare in other species
> (though it is seen in a very limited form in some birds). Note that
> imitating is quite different than learning. Most animals can learn by
> observing others. They can learn what to fear or where to eat, but
they
> cannot learn behavior that is not innate. Humans on the other hand,
are
> what Susan Blackmore refers to in The Meme Machine as 'consummate
> imitative
> generalists' that can copy behaviors that are completely alien.
Indeed,
> what seems to be innate in us is our ability to imitate.
I think that what we are referring to goes a lot further than simple
imitation. Humans can *consciously* and *selectively* imitate in an
"intelligent" fashion that apparently exceeds any similar capacity in
any other species. Furthermore, mankind has expanded his powers of
imitation immensely with incredible communications and recording
"technology",starting with language itself. When you do computer based
training, this is taken to an extreme!
Of course, Roger has said all this in his post.
One result of the explosion of non-genetic copying mechanisms means that
the inadequacy of genetics to explain everything about mankind becomes
numbskullingly obvious.
Jonathan
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