ORB Visualization
(soon)
Communication from Arel Lucas, to comments from Paul
Prueitt
(comments linked from the indicators “(*)” where * is an
integer)
2/1/2004 3:06 PM
Dear fellow scholars,
I realize that I'm jumping
into the middle of something, and that this behavior might be ill-mannered,
ignorant and useless, but I keep hearing about this stream from my husband Keith
Henson, and, as the inventor of the word "memetics," I feel it's
possible I might have something to say.
(1) On ownership
In the first place, I've heard
that someone on this list has been defining "meme" as a
"catalytic indexical" (if that's the correct spelling--if it isn't I
can't find a definition). I disagree on both counts, assuming that I
understand the definitions involved.
(2) On the use of the term
“catalytic indexical”
"Catalytic" I take
in the chemical sense, as "Pertaining to or causing catalysis," which
is from the Greek word for "dissolve," or more anciently, to "loose
down," "the causing or accelerating of a chemical change by the
addition of a substance . . . which is not permanently affected by the
reaction." (The New Century Dictionary, 1946). (I apologize
for the HTML. I really should shut it off. If it makes this hard to
read and you're interested enough to want a plain text copy, I can send one.
"Indexical" I take
in the WordNet sense,
http://poets.notredame.ac.jp/cgi-bin/wn,
essentially pertaining either
to (1) an index, or (2) a fact or assertion.
(3) On the notion of catalytic as a cross scale mechanism
Here are the two
counts: (1) Catalytic: I agree that causing or accelerating
chemical change is essential to the definition of the action of memes on the
brain. However, a catalyst is not permanently affected by the
reaction it causes. This is where I disagree. It leaves out
the evolutionary aspect that is the basis of the definition of the word
"meme" and the reason for the creation of the concept by Dawkins, an
evolutionary scientist. When a hemoglobin molecule catalyzes oxygen
reactions, it temporarily changes shape but does not keep that shape after the
reaction is over. If it changes shape permanently, it does so in response
to damage, ontogeny or phylogeny, but not in response to the
reaction. In that case, it either changes or cannot catalyze the
reaction it typically facilitates. A meme is not like hemoglobin.
It is more like oxygen. Memes are capable of mutation and dissemination
in and from each brain that receives them. They can also
stop right there and cause no reaction at all (an essentially Buddhist or Zen
response in the rare case where it is not the result of an ineffective meme or
ignorance, indifference or genetically based dissociation on the part of the
receiving brain).
(5) On the confusion that the
meme metaphor creates
Count Two: A meme is
not a fact or assertion. Nor is it an adjective (as is
"indexical"). I think the definition of meme has by this time
absorbed those of "culturgen" and other "idea-related"
concepts of evolving information patterns that affect brains and cause
behaviors. Nor does a meme pertain to any sort of index. I have
been an indexer, and I can assure you that all ideas or memes on the planet
have not been indexed. At the point when I began to work on one, there
was no publicly available thesaurus of semiconductors--and still might not be
one. I produced one with several thousand words for Applied Materials, a
private company, and they copyrighted it. I only got started. And
that was just one field, bordered by physics on the one hand and industrial
processes on the other, with a dimension of social organization. A lot of
definitions have been offered for memes, and I've defined it in various ways at
different times, but "facts" or "assertions" have no
legitimate place in these definitions, because "facts" have
absolutely nothing to do with the way the brain works, and little to do with
information (especially defined in physics and engineering).
(6) On “evolving information patterns that affect brains and cause behavior”
<edited… to
remove a second topic of discussion>
Ah, memes!
Arel Lucas