In fact, I would say that the design of the igloo is the meme.
It can be explained with drawings, with words, or one can simply
build one and transmit (intentionally or unintentionally) the meme to
someone else who sees the process or the result. But the essential
thing to transmit, in order to reproduce the igloo, is the design.
Memes are the essence of the mechanisms that make it possible for
designs to reproduce themselves, or with intentional actors, that
make it possible for the design to be reproduced by the actors.
I am very happy that the discussion has brought the memes to the
foreground, because I believe the meme is a very central concept for
the study of design!
Does someone know of a community of people who are actively
interested in studying the relationship of memes and design? If such
exists and you know of it, please send me a note!
cheers, kh
....
At 13:47 +1000 10.4.2002, Keith Russell wrote:
>re memes, i guess one should not confuse the objects or behaviors
>the memes bring forth and the memes that do that. their
>relationship is like the relationship between organisms and genes,
>or between phenotypes and genotypes. the igloo would be a
>consequences of the meme igloo that eskimos presumably carry in
>their mind. i wouldn't know what the spacial dimension of the meme
>igloo would be. it is a concept, an idea, a reproducible practice,
>an algorithm -- maybe dawkin's theoretical fiction that has some
>explanatory capability in the conversations among (cognitive)
>scientists and perhaps among designers too.
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