>>>BTW, I'm fairly keen to attach my name to the suggestion
>>>that empathy is a prerequisite for memetic transmission
>>
>>Why? What empathy does Coca Cola Schweppes have with me? Coke memes have
>>certainly transmitted between that Company and my mind... otherwise I
>>wouldn't call Cola "Coke".
>
>Umm.. sorry, but if you want a response to this, you're
>going to have to spell it out for me.
Well... the dominant memes in my mind about Coke are "Jeez, Coke's shed.
Everyone buys it, but it's so sugary it makes my teeth hurt, it's
overpriced, and it's ludicrously fizzy. PLUS it's a sinister multinational,
which exists fuelled by a memetic process which is very close to a Mind
Virus- people shelling out loads of cash to buy something that's basically
horrible more or less because they're told to by the people they're doing
favours for."
So I don't think Coke has much empathy with me.
BUT I know about Coke, I can sing at least three Coke advertising tunes, I
know about their sponsorship deals, and whenever asked to think of soft
drinks, Coke would always appear amongst my first five answers. Even if I
was witholding saying "Coke", it'd still pop right in there. Thus, the Coca
Cola company have definitely transmitted memes into my mind, although their
dominant memes ("Coke is fucking cool") don't (at the moment, at least) gel
with my dominant memes.
Dave Pape
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