Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA26159 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 5 Apr 2002 19:10:45 +0100 Message-ID: <00c601c1dcd3$e9003680$5e2ffea9@oemcomputer> From: "Philip Jonkers" <philipjonkers@prodigy.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <3CC2D2C9@iit1s21> Subject: Re: memetic memes Date: Fri, 5 Apr 2002 09:58:42 -0900 Organization: Prodigy Internet Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Randy:
> I recently discovered a book on Erasmus Darwin so, of course, instead of
> studying for my Spanish test, I found myself delving into the intriguing
world
> of the memetic evolution of science. You see, Erasmus Darwin was the
leading
> doctor of his day, completely versed in the latest "bleeding" technology
> (sarcasm), but nevertheless wanted far and wide for his services (by none
> other than King George...the third I think?). He was known to associate
with
> Rousseau and Watt, amongst oyther great minds, and devised all sorts of
> mechanical devices. He was the first person to observe and describe the
> effects that oxygen had on blood and was active in the debate about
phlogiston
> (silly 18th century). He also dabbled in poetry, and had a knack for
including
> scientific themes into his poetry, particularly evolution.This legacy was
then
> left to Darwin, or Patrick Matthew if you want to lend credit where credit
it
> due.
>
> I find this interesting because here is the dawn of an age (perhaps a peak
of
> an age or half way up the peak, for our purposes it matters not) where man
> manipulates his environment, not only with simple logic, but by reasoned
> scientific inquiry into the mechanics of nature. This is where materialism
> takes firm hold of the rational human mind. So why, if we are now rational
> beings, does irrationality continue unabated in the world? I suggest
ignorant
> and just plain uninformed, people.
Hi Randy, it may be true that nowadays humans are in general and averaged
over
the population more rational than in the dark ages but irrationality still
holds
sway though. As long as there are irrational memes floating around which
have sufficiently high persuasion power (referred to here on the list as
parasitic, cancerous or viral memes) they *will* get their share of hosts.
In the long run, however, I would expect `rational' memes to survive and
dominate the
niches in the hosts. But we haven't quite reached a irrational meme free soc
iety yet
and will never reach it as high persuasion memes (whether they be good
(=rational) or
bad (=irrational)) will always get an initial edge over the memes who have
lower persuasion power but perhaps have a more rational value.
In the end, as with commerce, it all boils down to proper (read aggressive)
marketing.
To inform the hosts on which memes to adopt and which not to, helps greatly
I think to approach an irrational meme free society, provided of course that
the information has a rational basis. Science facilitates the implementation
of
such a measure.
Philip.
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