February 21

Flex Time Progress
I have to say, things are not looking good so far. There's some discussion of Blackmore, but it's still a little thin. All we really need to do, people, is check in the forum once a day. Just for a few minutes. Respond to a thread or make a posting. This is something you could even do while online chatting or surfing or whatever. I'll be out of town this weekend, coming back late on Monday night, so I won't be around to guide you all in the forum, though I will leave some direction today. If people want to keep flex time, I have to say, it would help to come back and see multiple Blackmore threads with multiple postings.

I will, however, consider some other alternatives. Someone has suggested online chat in some form or other, which I may go with. But you know, things are going to get more strict (it seems) and though that may be a HARD thing, I think by the end of the semester you will all agree that it's also a GOOD thing.

Meme, Shmeme
OK, we've started to think of examples of memes, but we need to look at these in relation to Blackmore's text. Remember that 1)"meme" is a slippery concept but 2)Blackmore's concern is the problem of cultures reproducing. She says a lot about genes, too, right? Well, genes are how biological information gets reproduced--they carry the instructions for making living things. Memes, it would seem, are like genes in that they are the way in which cultural information gets reproduced--they carry the instructions for making culture.

Rather than reply to all the examples in the forum, I thought I would point to some passages from Blackmore that speak directly to those examples. I'm hopping someone will use these bits of text to advance the forum discussion:

• "Language provides a good example of cultural evolution" (136) (and also the rest of that page into the next)
• "I have described them as . . . " (152)
• "In memetic terms, all that happens--whether science or art--is selective imitation" (140)
• "What about emotions?" (and following discussion) (154)

I've also started some more threads in the forum to get us more into Blackmore.

More Help with Memes
Check out the Blackmore Link-O-Mat for some background on Blackmore and links that will help you understand memes better. If you learn anything interesting, share it on the forum.

To Do for Next Class:

1. Discuss Blackmore as though Flex Time depended on it <g>.