(July 21, 2010 at 6:19 pm)Cecco Wrote: nobody is disputing the definition, evf, what we're disputing is whether they exist as anything more than a concept, whether they exist as a true science in that they can be measured accurately in clearly quantifiable units.
and super cynic, may i just say thank you for a response that didn't have any personal slurs in. i do not claim to know exactly how ideas are passed from one brain to another - nobody knows for sure - but yes, of course there is some mechanism for mimicry and without doubt these views have been passed down through oral tradition and culture, i have never disputed that. all i am saying is that there is no evidence that ideas travel around specifically in individual pockets of non physical memes. they certainly travel, ideas certainly spread, but it is not certain that they travel in individual measurable units. it canot be ruled out that ideas are exchanged in much more different, tangible, perhaps more complex, ways. and so memetics is not yet science.
Well then, in terms of whether these memes can be measured scientifically, in units or in quantities, I would agree that there is no evidence towards this. This may be my own ignorance speaking, but I would deem it infeasable for something as abstract as, basically, an idea, to be able to be measured in a scientific way. It is a noodle-scratcher.
