Tuesday 9 March 2010

Martine Rothblatt's "bemes"

Bemes are fundamental, transmissible, mutate-able units of beingness very much in the spirit of memes. The difference is that memes are culturally transmissible elements that have common cultural meanings whereas bemes are highly individual elements of personality, mannerisms, feelings, recollections, beliefs, values, and attitudes.

- http://beta2.kurzweilai.net/on-genes-memes-bemes-and-conscious-things

Bemes do not evolve in an extended evolutionary process today - but in the future, they could do.

I've previously referred to a similar concept by the term "intracranial memes".

Neither my terminology nor Rothblatt's is ideal since - for one thing - these entities don't normally reproduce and evolve. When eventually they do, a "replicator" label may become more appropriate - but at that stage, this should probably still be "meme".

Monday 8 March 2010

An incohorent rant against cultural evolution

Mark Signorelli has published a long, incohorent rant against cultural evolution:Taking Memes Seriously

A number of responses may be found on richarddawkins.net.

If you click - be warned that Mark's article is terrible!