theory on theory

anyone wants to talk about the theories of theory? how a theory is developed, how well can a theory fit the reality etc. in physics, once an observation is made, there are often more than one theories to exaplin the phenominon (true, or more true, in philosophy really). for example, newtonian mechanics and eistein’s relativistic mechanics are theories which can be used to predict the mechanics of things. newtonian mechanics only works when the relative speed is low but it was accepted as totally true for a long time.
Yan

Ah yes good ol’ epistemology, which is ultimately The theory of theories. No my question Is this how do you feel about memetics, ie the idea that ideas are alive and transmit from host to host like viruses?

I like the idea of memetics, it makes sense. I was reading an article by Susan blackmore the other day on memetics. well one thing keeps on bothering me. is it really true do you think, that no animals other than humans are capable of the true imitation that is crucial to the evolution and transmition of memes?
Yan

It seems tautological to me. What is true imitation? imitation done by humans. the rest of the imitation done in the world by animals? that’s not REAL imitation.

I think the animals are to some extent indeed capable of imitation.

the problem I have with memetics is that it’s an idea in search of A subject. What the hell is A meme? Nobody is quite sure. Is dum dum dum duuuuum of Beethoven’s Fifth a meme? Are the dying and rising god figure or the Priest-Warrior-Farmer triad in mythology, memes? Is it applicable only to language or does it apply to other semiotic systems? Is it tangible or is it purely the result of the parsing of the world, a simple idea (sorry for the half-assed computer speak. I’m trying to be as non idealistic as possible) a category, a tool designed by the mind to manipulate data.