Someone on another list recently quoted Bertrand Russell as saying, "the
value of a discussion is inversely proportional to the time spent debating
the meaning of terms..." That may not be entirely true when there's a
genuine misunderstanding, but the valuable point was that as scientists
and organisms, our time is best spent clarifying "what problem are we
trying to solve here?" and "how to we solve it?"
The question for me here would be, "What use is there to comparing
memetics to genetics?" I think the answer is that understanding
the similarities and differences will give us a more powerful general
theory, and some insights about how pathogenic memes find their way into
our own beliefs and actions.
However, I still need to read Richard Brodie's book to catch up with the
rest of you. My feeling is that looking dispassionately at ideas & beliefs
as replicators transmitted through infection vectors is a good way to
strip away historical baggage-- vestigial rhetoric accumulated through
accidents of local history-- to get closer to the basic original
intention. I could see this as being of tremendous value to
students of traditional religion, for example...
This is a cool list!
JON
Virus Newbie