From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Thu 20 Feb 2003 - 05:24:31 GMT
>From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@rogers.com>
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Subject: Re: Sue Blackmore lecture Wednesday 5.15pm London
>Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 08:36:15 -0500
>
>snip
>
>
>> > Poppycock. What about the "meme's eye view"? I thought
(oops a meme in
>> > my head caused me to think) that it's not us having memes,
but that
>> > it's all about the memes having us. Conscious "choice",
volition, or
>> > "free will" is nothing more than a castle in the sky, a meme
that has
>> > captured us in its net and caused us to "think" (whatver that
empty
>> > word means) that we have "control".
>> >
>>The 'meme's eye view' is as much of a fiction as the 'gene's eye
view',
>>the 'God's eye view' and the 'stone's eye view'.
>> >
>> > "I" am not "me". "I" am an automaton driven by a collection
of mental
>> > contagions, deluded that "I've" a "self" there. That's what the
memes
>> > want me to "think" {PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT="}
>
>ROTFLMAO (Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off) Stones
with eyes yet.
>
>>If you think that memes WANT ANYTHING, much less for
you to think a
>>certain thing, even the information they contain, then you have
a
>>homuncular misunderstanding of memetics. But I doubt that
you think
>>that. I think you were being sarcasticly humorous, and if so,
you did a
>>reasonable job of lampooning the misunderstandings of some
in the
>>field.
>
>You been trolled, and missed the wink {PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT="}
>
>Keith Henson
>
>(Though funny as it is, it captures a corner of reality. :-) )
>
>
Joe wasn't trolled. He caught the wink and knows me well enough
that he
recognized my disdain for memetic marionette views. That you
see a corner of
reality captured shows my satire wasn't too far off base after all.
My contention with Joe would be that if he asserts volition or
conscious
choice and that memes don't have people, instead of vice versa, at
what
point does his view diverge from memetics.
Memetic purity is a good starting point for demolition and Benzon
seems to
be gearing up his wrecking ball.
The memetic paradigm is still too young and newly formed to
possess a received dogma, but a thousand disagreeing bloomin'
flowers are still endeavoring to impose one. It ain't gonna work
until more is discovered and known. Dogmas require
foundations, and we are still building ours. The paradigm will
survive and prosper, but we are still negotiating its provisional
configuration.
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