Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id GAA08030 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 28 Feb 2002 06:52:44 GMT X-Authentication-Warning: cheetah.nor.com.au: Host 227.digital.ppp.telstra.dataheart.net [202.147.129.227] claimed to be green-machine Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.20020228151257.01808400@pophost.nor.com.au> X-Sender: jeremyb@pophost.nor.com.au X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.1 (32) Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2002 15:12:57 +1100 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Jeremy Bradley <jeremyb@nor.com.au> Subject: RE: Words and memes: criteria for acceptance of new belief or meme In-Reply-To: <JJEIIFOCALCJKOFDFAHBKECMEGAA.richard@brodietech.com> References: <5.1.0.14.0.20020218163615.02ca4170@pop.cogeco.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 03:13 PM 18/02/02 -0800, Richard wrote:
Snip....
>A good religion is part of a default set of narratives. Rational empiricists
>get hung up on the myth aspect of religions, taking it on blind faith that a
>make-believe story cannot possibly have any value. This is an irrational
>position and a blind spot in the worldviews of many smart people.
>
>Also see my essay at www.memecentral.com/l3faith.htm
>
>Richard Brodie
>www.memecentral.com
Yes yes yes
"A good religion is part of a default set of narratives".
The only comment that I would add to this Richard is, that for a religion
to be peacefully accepted it must conform to a prior set of cultural
narratives. It is only after the religion is established that it becomes a
default ethos.
In prior postings I had written that I thought that a 'meme' was a 'code'
rather than a 'replicating idea'. I now have converted to the latter
ideology. In my previous work I had assumed that a meme was the strand of
coded information which enabled a culture to be the arbiter of appropriacy
and thereby preserve itself by defending against 'inappropriate' ideas and
beliefs. Like a cultural DNA my meme would be the criteria for acceptance
of new belief. I even 'mapped' the criteria of two divergent cultures to
show the underlying causes for their ideological disparity. Thanks to the
members of this list, I now see my earlier work as a cultural parallel of
the genome project (another word? - menome? cneme?).
I think that this is the answer to those looking for artificial
intelligence, predictive models, soft maths etc. Intelligence is only
recognised as such by like minds; there is no objective or homogenous
intelligence and even 'common knowledge' is only common to sub-sets within
cultures. For example, my applause at Richard's statement does not mean
that Richard is a genius to my car salesman (Christian fundie) brother. Oh
no, to him Richard's statement is heresy and brands him as an idiot.
More on this later.
Jeremy
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