From: Grant Callaghan (grantc4@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri 01 Nov 2002 - 01:32:15 GMT
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com>
> > You also have a choice about what to do about your anger. Kennedy used
>his
> > as a tool to thwart his political enemies. He could just as easily have
> > punched one of them in the nose, but that would be counter productive.
> > Instead, when that person came to him for a political favor, he just
> > declined to give it.
> > Memes don't MAKE you do what you do about things like anger. They
>memely
> > place limits on your available responses. You won't do what you can't
> > imagine doing. You have a store of learned responses that cover almost
> > every situation you are likely to encounter. The more of them you learn
>the
> > more options you have to choose between. The brilliant man is one who
>is
> > able to come up with a good response for something he has never
>encountered
> > before. The stupid man is one who lashes out automatically without even
> > thinking of what might be the best response. The martial artist
>develops
> > and practices resonses to every situation he is likely to encounter. In
> > most cases this is a winning behavior.
>
>Grant, that is to say in the case you agree with the notion of a free will
>!
>I stand more in the other camp, the area where memes are in control, they
>only limit " my " avaible responses in order to get best/ better ways to
>propagate themselves. The stored learned behaviors are just such ways.
>The choise is theirs to make.
>Remerber, memes let us do/ let us act in ways by which we can die, in
>most cases, moreover in all cases memes are the winners.
>
>For us, we will end up agreeing in disagreement !
>
>Regards,
>
>Kenneth
I don't believe inanimate objects make choices about anything. I believe
people make choices about which tools to use in a given situation. I don't
believe the tool chooses me. I already have the tool in my mind. Why would
it choose me even if it could. That's like saying you choose the players
for your team that you already have. That's not a choice. But what we do
have is a collection of tools, some of which we judge to be better for the
job we want to do than others.
For example, you have already been exposed to the word, "beme." It's in
your mind. You might choose to use it and you might not. But it can't
choose to be in your mind because it's already there. It can't choose to be
used for a job you don't want to use it for. If I want to make a joke and
say "Beme me up, Scotty." I'm not likely to choose instead to say, "Knock
me up, Scotty." That is, however, one of the choices I have. In fact, I
just chose it for the purpose of illustrating this example. "Knock me up"
is not likely to choose itself over "Beme me up" as a joke about memes. It
doesn't satisfy the criteria for which I am choosing the words I wish to
use.
Each of us has all of the memes we have been exposed to. They are there if
you search hard enough for them. They are there to be chosen by us when the
situation favors them. We don't always choose the best tool for the job,
but that's a matter of what we learn from experience. It's not a matter of
what the memes in our minds want or don't want.
Cheers,
Grant
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