Hi,
Richard Brodie <richard@brodietech.com> writes:
<<
Frankly, I think I know more about memes than the editors of the OED.
Their definition, in line with Dawkins's original proposal which he
later refined to be in line with mine, is so vague as to make the word
useless for scientific purposes. It is becoming clear that there may
be more than one cultural replicator. All of the book-length published
works on memes that I know of use definitions similar to the one I
used. Dawkins, Dennett, Blackmore, and Plotkin all agree with me on
this.
>>
Uhh. No. Blackmore specifically goes on record to say that "we do not know the mechanism for copying and *storing* memes". She sais that "we may assume that, at least at some phase in their replication, meme have to be physically stored in brains" -- but she does not put that necessity into the definition of a meme, prefering instead to keep it as simple as possible -- her usual definition of a meme is "whatever it is that is passed on by imitation". (she repeats this phrase dozens of times).
So no -- Blackmore's exact position is that "Memes are stored in human brains (or books or inventions) and passed on by imitation.
ERiC