Well, to apply as much fudge as possible without choking, how does one
distinguish thoughts or ideas, and when do we even begin to think that
things called memes intrude? I don't bloody know. I just know that what
we see and what we read are already the artifacts of ideas and thoughts,
and as such are IMHO _useless_ as sources of memes. Memes are in the
brain. Period. Where else, dammit? I stand firm in thinking there need to
be _experiments on/in/with the brain_, not 'studies' of cultural
artifacts.
What is the 'idea' of Hamlet? How many 'ideas' does it have? Aristotle
applied 'thought' to drama with a necessary brush- next to 'plot' it was
most important. The culture of Greece used drama, perhaps more seminally
than we, but perhaps not. But as much as I like dramatic criticism and
analysis, ain't that study already there, and happy in its realm?
Are we calling literary analysis memetics? Why are we doing this? Do we
really need to usurp established disciplines- especially ones which IMHO
are off in wrong directions to find mind in the first place?
Please, please, let me see some experimental ideas, not academic
grant-pimping pipe-dreams based on fairytales....
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Wade T. Smith
morbius@channel1.com
wade_smith@harvard.edu
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