Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id LAA05171 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 12 Mar 2002 11:43:35 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: <3.0.1.32.20020312223056.00704afc@pophost.nor.com.au> X-Sender: jeremyb@pophost.nor.com.au X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Light Version 3.0.1 (32) Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 22:30:56 +1100 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Jeremy Bradley <jeremyb@nor.com.au> Subject: Re: Cultural traits and vulnerability to memes In-Reply-To: <20020311233241.868551FD45@camail.harvard.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 06:32 PM 11/03/02 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi Steve Drew -
>
>>> Hardwiring is not a defense against variance.
>>
>>Yes it is. It works or it doesn't.
>
>Hmm. I more meant to mean- you can't use variety in behaviors to deny
>hardwiring.
>
>>Discovering nothing can still be of value.
>
>Somewhere I saw another quote about that essence of science, and yes, it
>certainly is and can.
>
>>> And evolution is a system of developing hardwiring.
>>
>>It can be, that's why species go extinct. Too ossified to change.
>
>And I more meant to mean, evolution is a system of presenting the
>hardware.
>
>Memetics is generally one of the developments in thought that we've
>needed once we figured out, if we have figured out, that homo sapiens
>doesn't really do instinct any more. Or else we do and we're just too
>close to it to see it that way. We'd all like to see the report of an
>extraterrestial ethnographer. Well, as long as it wasn't a clam....
>
>- Wade
Hi All
Isn't hardwiring the same thing as instinct?
As I commented a few daze ago, there are a lot of ways of looking at time
(and I have learned a few more since then). If major cultural concepts,
(megga-memes?), such as a culturally shared notion, or perception, of time,
lead to formation and transmission of minor memes (such as the notion that
time may be wasted for example) which may be totally alien to a member of
another culture, does this notion of time constitute a trait, and does this
notion of time make us 'vulnerable' to such memes as time is (or isn't) a
wasetable commodity?
As for ET ethnographers, they would probably classify us as chimps with
strange and destructive behaviours
Jeremy
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