首页
登录
职称英语
Sociology[img]2014m9s/ct_etoefm_etoeflistz_0172_20149[/img] [br] What example d
Sociology[img]2014m9s/ct_etoefm_etoeflistz_0172_20149[/img] [br] What example d
游客
2025-02-05
37
管理
问题
Sociology
[br] What example does the professor give of a meme’s longevity?
Sociology
Narrator
Listen to part of a lecture in a sociology class.
Professor
Have you ever heard the one about alligators living in New York sewers? The story goes like this: a family went on vacation in Florida, and bought a couple of baby alligators as presents for their children, then returned from vacation to New York, bringing the alligators home with them as pets. But the alligators would escape and find their way into the New York sewer system where they started reproducing, grew to huge sizes and now strike fear into sewer workers. Have you heard this story? Well, it isn’t true and it never happened, but despite that, the story’s been around since the 1930s.
Or how about the song "Twinkle, twinkle, little star"? You know "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are . .." Well, we’ve all heard this song. Where am I going with this? Well, both the song and the story are examples of memes, and that’s what we’ll talk about, the theory of memes.
A meme is defined as a piece of information copied from person to person. By this definition, most of what you know ... ideas, skills, stories, songs ... are memes. All the words you know, all the scientific theories you’ve learned, the rules your parents taught you to observe ... all are memes that have been passed on from person to person.
So what? . . . you may say. Passing on ideas from one person to another is nothing new . . . Well, the whole point of defining this familiar process as transmission of memes is so that we can explore its analogy with the transmission of genes.
As you know, all living organisms pass on biological information through the genes. What’s a gene? A gene is a piece of biological information that gets copied, or replicated, and the copy, or replica, is passed on to the new generation. So genes are defined as replicators ...
Genes are replicators that pass on information about properties and characteristics of organisms. By analogy, memes also get replicated and in the process pass on cultural information from person to person, generation to generation. So memes are also replicators. To be a successful replicator, there are three key characteristics: longevity, fecundity, and fidelity. Let’s take a closer look ...
First, longevity. A replicator must exist long enough to be able to get copied and transfer its information. Clearly, the longer a replicator survives, the better its chances of getting its message copied and passed on. So longevity is a key characteristic of a replicator. If you take the alligator story, it can exist for a long time in individual memory—let’s say my memory. I can tell you the story now, or ten years from now. The same with the "Twinkle, twinkle" song. So these memes have longevity, because they’re memorable, for one reason or another.
Next, fecundity. Fecundity is the ability to reproduce in large numbers. For example, the common housefly reproduces by laying several thousand eggs. So each fly gene gets copied thousands of times. Memes? Well, they can be reproduced in large numbers as well. How many times have you sung the "Twinkle, twinkle" song to someone? Each time you replicated the song—and maybe passed it along to someone who didn’t know it yet, a small child maybe.
And finally, fidelity. Fidelity means accuracy of the copying process. We know fidelity is an essential principle of genetic transmission. If a copy of a gene is a bit different from the original, that’s called a genetic mutation, and mutations are usually bad news. An organism often cannot survive with a mutated gene—and so a gene usually cannot be passed on unless it’s an exact copy. For memes, however, fidelity is not always so important. For example, if you tell someone the alligator story I told you today, it probably won’t be word for word exactly as I said it. Still, it will be basically the same story, and the person who hears the story will be able to pass it along. Other memes are replicated with higher fidelity, though—like the "Twinkle, twinkle" song? It had the exact same words twenty years ago as it does now. Well, that’s because we see songs as something that has to be performed accurately each time. If you change a word, the others will usually bring you in line. They’ll say, "That’s not how you sing it," right?
So, you can see how looking at pieces of cultural information as replicators, as memes, and analyzing them in terms of longevity, fecundity, and fidelity, we can gain some insight about how they spread, persist, or change.
选项
A、A story has been changing since it first appeared in the 1930s.
B、A person remembers a story for many years.
C、A gene is passed on through many generations without changing.
D、A song quickly becomes popular all over the world.
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3944509.html
相关试题推荐
Sociology[img]2014m9s/ct_etoefm_etoeflistz_0172_20149[/img][br]ListentoTrac
Sociology[img]2014m9s/ct_etoefm_etoeflistz_0172_20149[/img][br]Whatdoesthe
Sociology[img]2014m9s/ct_etoefm_etoeflistz_0172_20149[/img][br]Whatisthema
Peopleattendcollegeoruniversityformanydifferentreasons(forexample,
[img]2018m9s/ct_etoefz_etoeflistz_201808_0024[/img][br]Whatdoestheprofessor
[img]2018m9s/ct_etoefz_etoeflistz_201808_0024[/img][br]Whatpointdoesthepro
[img]2018m9s/ct_etoefz_etoeflistz_201808_0024[/img][br]Accordingtotheprofes
[img]2018m9s/ct_etoefz_etoeflistz_201808_0024[/img][br]Theprofessormentions
[img]2018m9s/ct_etoefz_etoeflistz_201808_0023[/img][br]Listenagaintopartof
[img]2018m9s/ct_etoefz_etoeflistz_201808_0023[/img][br]Whataretwoaspectsof
随机试题
To:BertramKierstedFrom:AdrianaHandselDate:March16Subject:PriceIn
对燃煤锅炉房采取消防安全对策与措施时,应着重控制的影响火灾发生因素是()。
锌(如葡萄糖酸锌)用于治疗寻常痤疮的机制是()A:防止毛囊口角化 B:抑制雄
用于检查血管或血小板异常的试验是A.毛细血管脆性试验,BT B.毛细血管脆性试
A.流行性腮腺炎 B.鼠疫 C.流行性感冒 D.百日咳 E.麻风病根据《
咳声不扬,痰黄难咯者属A、热邪犯肺 B、燥邪犯肺 C、肺肾阳虚 D、寒邪犯
关于所有者权益变动表的编制,下列说法错误的有()A.“净利润”项目,反映
某市政府办公楼总建筑面积6.5万平方米。现该市政府决定将办公室大楼物业管理服务外
某社会工作服务机构正在进行一项问卷调查,问卷类型为访问问卷。 为了控制这次调查
下列关于封闭式基金的说法不正确的是()。A:封闭式基金的基金份额总额在基金合同期
最新回复
(
0
)