Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!
|
 Panentheist
Falling Awake
Registered: 02/08/12
Posts: 10
|
 Meme theory/memetics 
#15785355 - 02/09/12 06:26 PM (3 months, 18 days ago) |
|
|
Skeptics, buddhists, atheists, christians and everyone else:
What are your thoughts on the theory of memes?
A meme is "an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture." A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures."
*Ideas (memes) self replicate in a similar way to the way genes evolve.
*Memes have similar properties to genes such as mutation, competition and variation.
*Memes that propagate less abundantly may become extinct (e.g. the boring video)
*For an idea to spread fast it must be funny, sexy, scary etc. (in this case, the meme is funny)
*It is irrelevant whether the idea is true or false or right or wrong.
Susan Blackmore, a contributing writer on the subject of memetics, thinks memes have given characteristics to our biology. She also says that because of memes our brains have evolved in such a way that our brains are preprogrammed to easily obtain and acquire new languages. It is arguably said that memes in culture have removed aspects from conscious choice to being purely mechanical. She touches upon the notion that there is no free will and sense of self for "I". Things dont happen because "I" make choices but because of interaction with memes which this "I" (selfplex, assemblage of memes) is composed.
So here i am, wearing my psychological gown, writing this letter in the psychedelic english language... do i have free will?
she might suggest that "I" am just an assemblage of memes? ... So using her logic i assume doctors, lawyers, politicians, musicians, comedians, and priests are just a 'selfplex' and are simply wearing psychological gowns.
What are your thoughts on memes theory?
Is the internet a meme? Is language a meme? science? religion? philosophy? new age culture? How so?
I also read somewhere that she is an avid user of lsd and other mind manifesting drugs. that's a plus i guess. 
thoughts?
Edited by Panentheist (02/09/12 06:29 PM)
|
 STR80180
Stranger
Registered: 12/13/10
Posts: 142
Last seen: 29 days, 6 hours
|
|
I've heard of memetics before and if it's true the idea of memetics is just a meme of it's own as well, which kind of debunks the whole theory as you can't tell if it's mechanical meme that you had no choice but to believe because of your interation with other memes, your personal assemblage of memes that you've collected along the way, which it made it believable in the first place.
Interesting theory though, it's defiantly thinking outside the box that's for sure.
|
5HTSynaptrip
Dopamine Enthusiast
Registered: 09/14/08
Posts: 3,824
Loc: Ohio 
Last seen: 3 days, 10 hours
|
 Re: Meme theory/memetics [Re: STR80180]
#15790103 - 02/10/12 07:30 PM (3 months, 17 days ago) |
|
|
I honestly don't like how the word is used in common internet rambling, but I find Dawkins' concept incredibly interesting.
--------------------
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. - My hero, who will be forever remembered, Carl Sagan.
 
| |
|
|
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Lana, trendal, Diploid, koraks, automan, johnm214
119 topic views. 1 members, 3 guests and 0 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Toggle Favorite | Print Topic ]
| | |
|
|
|
Previous
Index
Next
Threaded
Edit 
Reply 
