RE: Thoughts and Perceptions

From: Richard Brodie (richard@brodietech.com)
Date: Fri Apr 19 2002 - 00:29:04 BST

  • Next message: Bill Spight: "Re: Thoughts and Perceptions"

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    From: "Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com>
    To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    Subject: RE: Thoughts and Perceptions
    Date: Thu, 18 Apr 2002 16:29:04 -0700
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    Wade wrote:

    <<As for truth making a meme more fit, Richard has a very good take on
    that, and, as I'm sure he'll agree, it's a fallacy at best....>>

    I think Dennett's idea of "Good Tricks" is the midway in this carnival
    sideshow we're having. Some concepts are so naturally developed from the
    nature of reality that we cannot help but form them eventually. While they
    can still be transmitted memetically to be sure (after all, didn't we all
    learn about Newton's Laws in school?), they are so clearly true that we call
    them "discoveries."

    As Wade says, though, truth is not a prime selector for memetic
    transmission. When ideas get only one step removed from a place where we can
    test them easily, all the other forces of memetic selection begin to
    operate: danger, opportunity, ease of understanding... all these transform
    ideas as they are communicated like the children's game of telephone
    (Chinese whispers for you Brits).

    Richard Brodie
    www.memecentral.com

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