Re: Horowitz-Hill: Serious scholarly query

From: Clifford Heath (no_at_spam.please)
Date: 12/29/04 

Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 13:31:11 +1100

Kevin Aylward wrote:
>>Virii, genes and memes all self-replicate,
> 1 Put DNA in a culture dish. Can it replicate itself or its genes?
> 2 Put a phrase in a dish. Can it replicate itself?
> 3 Put a gene in culture dish. Can it replicate itself?
> Only 1 will replicate.

None of them will replicate. A culture dish is not the right
environment for any of them. All will replicate when given the
right environment. The gene and the DNA need s.t. like a cellular
mechanism in appropriate conditions and nutrition, the meme needs
a sentient population to which it has relevance.

> There is not a complete entity called a gene or meme that can rationally
> be considered to self replicate.

I think we're agreeing, but...

The concept of "entity" and "self" are human constructions which are
not well-defined in the real world. Even more obvious candidates
like bacteria etc have "corner cases". It's believed possible that
mitochondria in mammal cells originated as symbiotic bacteria, for
example.

All one can say is that the notion of "self" exists at this level in
processes which are widely re-occurring and sufficiently distinctive
(this requires that the process also be sufficiently long-lived).
Note that the process also requires certain physical manifestations,
but it's the process, not the material, which exhibits identity.

Clifford Heath.

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