Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id RAA18944 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 16 Mar 2000 17:00:41 GMT Subject: Re: Some questions Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 11:58:29 -0500 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas est veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20000316165832.AAA16170@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 03/16/00 09:12, Robin Faichney said this-
>But at the same time the concept of the self is a meme, and
>an extremely successful one, that is "caught" early in life, and I'm
>convinced
>that a person who had never interacted with any other person, would not have
>it.
The _concept_ of the self is certainly a meme, as the name of the song is
'The Aged Aged Man.' (And if I'm wrong about that, I'm sure a good
Carrollian out there will correct me.) But the self itself, well....
Your experiment, while totally unethical and therefore not endorsable,
has occurred by sad accident, with the 'wild child' discoveries, and,
from what I remember (completely sketchy though my memory is on this
point) these wild humans do not underscore your conviction.
But the information to corroborate the absence of self in the absence of
others is not available, and I wonder if it ever could be.
- Wade
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