FacultyMemeticsFesterCurrentDrafts1

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[edit] Memetics and Problem Solving Brain Dump

• Memetics can
  • Cause the problem (e.g. Catholic divorce)
    • Problems which grow out of culture
    • Modes of thinking which limit the routes to solution
    • Challenging the paradigm as a route to solution
      • Henry VIII
      • Questioning the question in essay writing and debates
  • Frame the problem (e.g. Essay titles)
    • A means of classifying in order to simplify
    • Aids application of heuristic approaches
  • Approach the problem (e.g. Search heuristics)
    • Not necessarily the best approach (e.g. prayer)
    • Generally a rough-and-ready approach, yielding a quick solution
      • Examples: Analogy, trial and error
    • Tried-and-tested approaches increase the likelihood of success
      • Examples: Chunking, prioritising
    • Best with problems of a recognised and familiar type
    • Google searching as a sampling of memes
    • Brainstorming as a similar meme collection exercise
    • Meme blending to reach a better solution
      • Diatribe, dialogue and debate
    • Google searching itself a problem solving exercise
  • Be a solution in itself (e.g. Linux/FOSS software community)
    • Problems solved by means of an evolved solution
    • Competing memes of a community and the gradual emergence of dominant characteristics
    • The ease with which memes can hybridise compared to the biological equivalents
    • Bacteriological reproduction as an interesting aside
      • sexual reproduction
      • plasmid transfer
      • incorporation of free-floating material
      • bacteriophage transduction
    • Collaboration as a means of broadening the meme pool
    • Weaknesses of collaboratve problem solving
      • Decision by committee versus autocracy: the need to be decisive and the problem of popularity
      • Dilution of expertise leading to decision by lowest common factor
      • EU comitology: obscurity, bureaucracy, turf wars and "where the buck stops"
      • Propaganda: the battle of volume, style and persistence against logic
• The Faculty approach
  • The Great Cycle
    • Dissertation
    • Discourse and antithesis
    • Hypothesis creation and testing
    • Synthesis and "hyperthesis"
  • Compare Hegelian Dialectic Process
    • Thesis
    • Antithesis
    • Synthesis
• Links to examples and field literature
• Open dialogue: solicit response and further questions to develop this enquiry
• Seek discourse to form hypotheses which grow out of this response