virus: Random thoughts & more poor analogies!
Nathaniel Hall (natehall@WORLDNET.ATT.NET)
Sat, 15 Aug 1998 09:57:34 -0600
Life on earth can be traced down to one common start: All the various
branches lead to one root. An interesting question is this: can all
memes be traced down to a common point? I have heard it argued that all
languages can be traced down to a common root for example.
Another interesting question: life can be categorized into large
groupings and subcategorizes . This is because bundles of genes
(survival machines) at certain point cannot exchange information with
other bundles. Is there a meme equivalent? The closest fit to this I can
think of is language. I can't exchange information freely with someone
who speaks another language (a meme complex). However in meme space it
is still possible through folks with knowledge of both meme complexes
(or languages) . I can see no equivalent in gene space. This must be the
major difference between genes and memes: the ease at which memes can
cross different "species" so that even the concept of "species" among
the memes is mute. Comments anyone?
Nate Hall