[extropy-chat] SEX! (Re: Martine Rothblatt and bemes)

[Keith Henson]

At 11:27 PM 11/9/2006 +0100, Anders wrote:

snip

>  Already memes
>are problematic as replicators since they are hard to delineate from
>surrounding cognitive structures,

Hi Anders

In my opinion, the only logical way to consider memes is as pure 
information.  True, they have to be in a brain to have effects, just like a 
gene has to be in a cell or a computer virus has to be in a computer.

But the essence of a meme is the information.

So memes are replicating information patterns, elements of culture, ideas, 
beliefs, etc, etc.

But it all comes down to the same thing, information measurable in bits.

I have been seriously annoyed at people who tried to mystify such a simple 
subject.  They distract from the really interesting interface between 
evolutionary psychology and memetics which elucidates subjects as important 
to humans as germ theory.

Keith Henson