From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Sun Nov 23 2003 - 13:50:28 MST
At 08:52 PM 23/11/03 +0200, you wrote:
>[Blunderov]
>I was interested to discover that the distinction between abstract and
>concrete is something that has only very recently come to the attention
>of Philososphy.
>
>It really is very interesting - are, for instance, memes abstract or
>concrete?
Yes. :-)
This takes a bit of discussion and examples to make it clear. A meme is
an abstract *information pattern." But like *all* information it has to be
encoded in concrete matter. So a particular kind of "paper airplane" meme
can be encoded in brains, in a video of someone making one, in a drawing of
how to make one, in text describing how to fold one up, or in an actual
physical paper airplane (because the meme for how to fold one can be
extracted from the folded paper by noting the steps of unfolding a paper
airplane to a flat sheet).
Keith Henson
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