Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA23410 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 18 Apr 2002 15:24:33 +0100 Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 10:18:31 -0400 Subject: Re: Thoughts and Perceptions 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: <3CBEC6CB.C1D2B380@pacbell.net> Message-Id: <28F2B5CD-52D7-11D6-A1A2-003065B9A95A@harvard.edu> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.481) Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Thursday, April 18, 2002, at 09:14 , Bill Spight wrote:
> Facts are not memes. However, for any given facts, there is a
> multiplicity of descriptions, explanations, theories that fit those
> facts. And those descriptions, explanations, and theories are memetic.
Yes.
> That fact would not have occurred
> without the idea.
No. The fact was there all along. The fact that no-one achieved escape
velocity might have been dependent upon some idea of escape velocity,
but this did not precede the fact that there was a velocity required to
escape. That velocity never appeared just because someone thought about
it.
Of course, there is a cosmology that requires the thought of God to
start the whole shebang....
And then there's Bishop Berkeley.
And I suppose there's Plato, too.
None of which deal with facts....
- Wade
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