Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id AAA02005 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 18 Feb 2002 00:27:34 GMT Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 19:22:11 -0500 Subject: Re: ality Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In-Reply-To: <004001c1b7f9$99cd68c0$9086b2d1@teddace> Message-Id: <8D1E3AD7-2405-11D6-8DEC-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.480) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Sunday, February 17, 2002, at 04:25 , Dace wrote:
> The concept of
> memory implies that the past is in some way present.
I'm still agape at what 'memory' means to you. Of course memories are
present- they are neurochemical creations of the brain, part of the
process that evolution selected for.
At any rate, the concept of 'the past being present' (whatever that
means) has nothing to do with it.
(What, indeed, does the 'concept' of memory have to do with it, Tina
sings.)
You might have a photo of yourself at age 10. This photo is here in the
present. It is not, however, the past, or a concept of the past, or some
implication that you are presently ten years old. It is a remembrance,
in chemical and paper, from the past, and if carefully maintained, may
outlive you into the future. It is an artifact, just as the process of
the brain that produces the remembrance of having that photo taken is.
Webster's -- memory- noun- the store [artifacts] of things learned and
retained from an organism's activity or experience as evidenced by
modification of structure or behavior [memes] or by recall and
recognition [brain processes].
- Wade
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