Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA02471 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 23 May 2000 03:13:21 +0100 From: "Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: What is "useful"; what is "survival" Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 19:11:20 -0700 Message-ID: <NBBBIIDKHCMGAIPMFFPJKEMIENAA.richard@brodietech.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2911.0) In-Reply-To: <39298FBD.A19086F6@mediaone.net> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 Importance: Normal Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Chuck wrote:
<<In a nutshell, useful means "useful for survival within a particular type
of society." You can't tell recently discovered hunter/gatherer group that
they need computers because they are doing perfectly well in their own
econiche with a hunting/gathering stone age technology. But tell a modern
office manager that his outfit doesn't need a computer operating system or a
fax, and he will look at you a little funny. That's because he knows
perfectly well that his firm needs it to survive in the type of society
generally called an advanced capitalist industrial economy. If you don't
have it, you are at a competitive disadvantage and you might not be able to
earn a living if you keep up that and similar behavior.>>
But Chuck, this is exactly Blackmore's point! The memeplex has evolved to
make communication equipment essential to its own survival! The people who
do the work and buy the equipment, instead of sipping coconut milk on the
beach, are so wired into the system that their survival is truly threatened
if they don't play along!
<<Frankly, I don't think I am saying anything that people don't know, but it
bears saying it because so many
of us have come to dislike the hoops we have to go through to survive in an
industrial economy. But like it
or not, it's survival.>>
Frankly I've never heard anyone else on this list, other than you, express
distaste for technological progress.
Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com
http://www.memecentral.com/rbrodie.htm
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