[Buddha-l] Memes amd me

[Jim Peavler]

On Jan 25, 2007, at 2:26 PM, jkirk wrote:

> I always understood that instincts were genetically based.
> thus instinct can't serve for meme.
> joanna
> ==========

That's what I thought I was saying. I was agreeing (ignorantly enough  
but not necessarily incorrectly) that instinct and gene-based were  
the same thing and that meme was something else.


> jim:
>
>
>> I suppose instinct is correct, although I don't know if there is a
>> technical difference amongst biologists. It is like, for example,  
>> a  young
>> monkey learns to wash clams before eating them if she goes with   
>> the adults
>> to the seaside everyday, but a similar monkey, isolated  from the  
>> clan but
>> with access to the same clams might eat clams  (instinct/genetic),  
>> but
>> never think of washing them.
>>
>> "Meme" should always be kept separate from "mime", of course,  
>> which  means
>> "one who imitates monkeys".
>>
>
>
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Jim Peavler
jmp at peavler.org