virus: Meta

Ken Pantheists (kenpan@axionet.com)
Mon, 29 Jul 1996 10:25:52 -0700


There! Now it is a new thread. :)


> KMO wrote:
> > I'm pushing for the use of the word 'metameme' as refering to memes
> > which exert selection pressure on other memes....
> > For the meme about memes, I think "the 'meme' meme" works well.
>
John Porter wrote:
>
> I won't say your use of 'meta-' is incorrect, but it is different from
> what I have usually seen it to mean. Language about language is
> metalanguage. Mathematics about mathematics is metamathematics.
> cf. Hofstadter.
>
> If we must use the term 'metameme' your way, we could differentiate
> between "metamemes as a class" (your definition) and "The Metameme"
> (my definition).
>

I agree with John.

I understand the metameme to be the meme about memes.

When you really think about it, you can't label all the memes that exert
selection pressure on other memes-- because they need the counter meme
to be interpreted as pressure exerting. A meme will exert pressure only
in an environment of memes that exert similar pressure. A racism meme
only exerts pressure in an environment of racial tension.

-- 
Regards
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Ken Pantheists                         http://www.lucifer.com/~kenpan           
Virus Theatre                     http://www.lucifer.com/virus/theatre
TooBa Physical Theatre Centre http://www.ffa.ucalgary.ca/vca/tooba.htm
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