Re: Some questions

From: Kenneth Van Oost (Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be)
Date: Tue Mar 14 2000 - 20:02:26 GMT

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    From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be>
    To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
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    Subject: Re: Some questions
    Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2000 21:02:26 +0100
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    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Diana Stevenson <dianaxf@hotmail.com>
    To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    Sent: Tuesday, March 14, 2000 2:42 AM
    Subject: Some questions

    > Hi all - as a newbie may I ask some questions??
    >
    > Much of what's being said about memes seems to resonate with a postmodern
    > view of culture - with the exception that memeticists (so far) believe in
    > objective truths which can be found out through scientific methods.
    >
    > I'm wondering - if genes and memes neither know nor care about the truth,
    > but *we* do and we have methods of distinguishing truth from falsehood,
    > might that not indicate that:
    >
    > 1) we are more than just genes and memes
    > 2) we have superior abilities to genes and memes?
    >
    > As a great fan of the late Carl Sagan (and particularly "The Demon-Haunted
    > World: Science as a Candle in the Dark) I wonder what he would have made
    of
    > this question. If memes eventually "escape" from us to an independent
    > existence, the false ones as well as the true, presumably the devil and
    > demons will be among them. This may be evolution, but it hardly seems
    like
    > progress!!

    >Welcome Diana!!

    If you want some daft ideas about how memes can eventually "escape" from
    us,please be welcome to review my messages:
    Re:Monkeys stone herdsman in Kenya/Sunday 12/03/2000
    Re:monkeys stone herdsman in Kenya/Saterday 11/03/2000

    If you can't retrieve them please let me know,I will send them to you!

    Regards,

    Kenneth

    > Postmodernists on the other hand see a world in which truth is not found,
    > but made; systems of belief are tools, as are the transitory "selves"
    which
    > come into being to meet particular situations and "choose" from the
    > cafeteria of cultures. Is this worldview the triumph of the memes? And
    if
    > not how do memes sit with postmodernism? Any ideas?
    >
    > Diana
    > ------
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
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    >
    > ===============================================================
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    >

    ===============================================================
    This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit



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