X-Message-Number: 28480
Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 16:54:41 -0400
From: "Jonathan Hinek" <>
Subject: Re: Question for Memeticists

"Anthony ." <> wrote:

> The best "memes" are those that survive.
>
> Let's suppose then, that a hyper-disease travels around our globalised
> world and kills 90% of people. The rest linger on in the toxic
> wasteland as civilisation falls apart. Within a few generations, the
> situation is so desperate, that people are living as if it were the
> stone age. The highest tech that is used are flint tools. No-one
> understands, or knows what to do with, the ruins of civilisation.
>
> Doesn't this mean that the "best" memes would be those that
> transmitted stone tool creation and use?

Well, I'm no memeticist, but if memes are analogous to genes, then I
don't see how any meme can be "best." Value judgments are irrelevant,
since "fitness" is measured by survival and nothing else. So, in your
scenario, stone tool creation might be the fittest meme, in that
particular context, but it isn't the "best" in any absolute sense. I
don't think that question of "best" can be answered.

-- 
Jonathan
The Cold Filter
http://www.network54.com/Forum/291677/

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