Memetics, are you convinced?

[Dexter]

I watch the Sci-fi channel every Saturday night for the Japanese Anime. Now before the Anime begins they show this little mini-documentary on Meme's. After watching this programme, which is repeated every week, I began asking questions about this idea.
Below I have put as link to a site whicdh describes memetics. I personally am a bit sceptic, I'm going to look into it a lot more before making a decision.
Hopoefully I'll get round to taping the programme and putting up the transcript here, until then please visit the link and check.
Thanx

http://aleph.se/Trans/Cultural/Memetics/#THEORY

 

[Hamlet]

I've thought about it before and it seems to be a load of old tosh devised by people with far too much money and time to mess about with.

 

[Austin IronFist]

Uck, Anime....................

 

[Morten Blaabjerg]

I'm still puzzled, so I didn't vote. I simply have no idea what you are talking about. And I did follow the link.

 

[Greadius]

Can we get a quick summary of what it is? I tried following the link but don't feel like reading 15 thesis' about it...

Although my initial reaction is that if the sci-fi channels pays significant attention to it its probably bunk.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

"Memes" were originaly proposed by Richard Dawkins as a sociological equivalant to biological "genes", ie that ideas and concepts are subject to evolutionary forces too.

How the Japanese Anime animators have interpreted this however, I have no idea...

 

[Sixchan]

Anime has nothing to do with it. The program came on before Bubblegum Crisis, the same way as The Simpsons comes on before Enterprise.

Memes are ideas, and they act like viruses, transferring themselves from one mind to another. To use the analogy from the program, take a school craze, say, skateboarding. Now, a "cool" kid comes to school on a skateboard, and the next day, every child comes to school on a skateboard. If the child were to come with measles, then the next day, all the children would come to school with measles, since they caught the disease from the infected child. If the idea of skateboarding were a virus, and the virus were transmitted by imitation, then skateboarding is a "mind virus" or "meme"

Another example is Nazism. How does one idea turn so many people bad? If it were a virus, you would catch it, and become a host for the idea, the nazi meme.

Does this help?


My only question is, what if two conflicting memes (say, a meme that encourages Democracy, and a meme that encouraged Fascism) are in one mind?

 

[CurtSibling]

Originally posted by Sixchan

My only question is, what if two conflicting memes (say, a meme that encourages Democracy, and a meme that encouraged Fascism) are in one mind?

Simple, you would turn into a pumpkin!



PS
Memes are a interesting concept, but like the big bang theory,
they will take a ton of research to be proven feasible.

PPS
Quit dissing manga, you uncultured slobs.

 

[IceBlaZe]

Hmmmm.... I wonder if jews have an antidote for the nazi meme....

Biggest load of crap I ever read.

Let's say the nazi example, do you think it will work now on germany? Why not? Its not like they are immuned to memes now.
Nazism was the wrong theory at the right time, time of economical and social crisis, time of war aftermath and feelings of venegance and revenge hitler awakened in the german nation, and in other people too. Usually racist people are less educated, statistically, does that mean educated people are immuned to memes? or why some do or some arent?

Believe me, it's crap. dont waste your time on it.

The thing about skateboarding example, is that it is fun, it is cool looking and humans are known to be a specie involved in a lot of group activities and mass influence.
If a kid comes to a business place with a skateboard, the grown ups wont be 'infected', but if, lets say, a grown up business man comes with a scooter, there is a chance other people will like it. That is because of how the human mind works. It has nothing to do with memes shmims.

I dont think that if a kid eats his **** all the other kids will also do so...

 

[polymath]

Crazy Eddie,
Dawkins didn't come up with the idea of memes, he just popularised it in one of his books, 'The Selfish Gene' I think. Actually he invented the word 'meme' I should say, which I think is where people get the idea that meme 'theory' is something he came up with originally.
I just looked it up, apparently some guy called Cloak, an anthropologist, came up with the idea of 'cultural replicators'. I think memes sounds better.
The whole meme thing is in an indeterminate state for me, like Schrodinger's Cat. It's both truth and hogwash - only thing is, can I be bothered to open the box and find out? Guess I should do some reading.