X-Message-Number: 28383
References: <>
From: David Stodolsky <>
Subject: Re: Nanotech, space elevator and wealth (and the cost of LN2)
Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2006 13:34:31 +0200

On 2 Sep 2006, at 17:58, Keith Henson wrote:

>> No, because it isn't the right field of knowledge to deal with this
>> question.
>
> If you didn't read the article, how do you know it isn't in "the right
> field of knowledge"?

Your paper addresses questions typically dealt with in political  
economy. I am not aware that the 'meme' concept is used in that field  
at all (and it is rarely used in science, in general). The concept is  
derived from, and persists in, popular science works.

If you want to maintain that a zoologist suddenly had an insight that  
revolutionized psychology, anthropology, and now political economy,  
you are welcome to make a fool of yourself. If you do a search of the  
professional literature in these fields, you will discover this  
'insight' has barely penetrated the professional literature in the  
thirty years of its existence.

I have now looked at your article. What I have read confirms the above.

I approach this issue as a professionally trained psychologist with a  
research degree from the Univ. of Cal. The head of my PhD committee  
was a leading researcher in mathematical models of memory. I attended  
a conference a couple of weeks ago at the Danish University of  
Education. There was no mention of 'memes' in the latest research on  
the interactive evolution of the human species and its culture.



dss

David Stodolsky    Skype: davidstodolsky

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