Re: memetics-digest V1 #1321

From: Van oost Kenneth (kennethvanoost@belgacom.net)
Date: Sat 29 Mar 2003 - 11:53:28 GMT

  • Next message: Keith Henson: "Other roots of memetics"

    ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wade T. Smith" <wade.t.smith@verizon.net>
    > There is no need for the addition of memesinthemind. Memories and the
    > normal patterns and development and activity of the human brain are
    > enough, are all that is required, and are all that evolution has
    > managed to make. (I know, I know- memeinthemind theorists are making
    > the incredible claim that memes are part of normal cognitive
    > functioning, and yet, they fail to make any inroads to the path of
    > proving this. But they persist, claiming that the human mind must have
    > these things swimming around, whereas I say, poppycock- the processes
    > of cognition are totally capable of the activities called 'memetic' in
    > choices and ideas and mental patterns and so forth.)

    Wade,

    Maybe what memeticists claim is just part of the human condition.... If, like I said in my earlier post to you, we 're only perceive what can solipsisticly be explained, than the theorists claims aren' t that incredible. It ain 't a claim either, more of a believe- system.

    The fact that the construct of evolution has only formed one way of being the human, that is thus totally ' being alone ' within your mind, is something that the most of us can 't and will not grasp. People, evolutionary speaking, can 't be alone, they need other people, they form groups and groupsbounding is an evolutionary trait/ habit. IMO, that is poppycock _ evolution has managed to make this path so that we can ' evolve ' along its own patterns and developments.

    Memes in that respect are just being used to get the evolutionary functioning back to the drawingboard_ that is to say, people need something to be attached to. First it was nature, than God and now thus memes. We grew above nature, we lost God and in our search for the ' meaning of life ' we persist that the behaviors/ traits and ha- bits we have are just results of memetic processes. We need something to go by/ to go on just because we allegedly
    ' need ' other people. We need the artifacts, the products and the claims of those other people to be alive at all, but we don 't ' need ' the people behind them.

    The social/ cultural intercourse which we need, so they claim is IMO just another cognitive path to rewind our ' loneliness '_ what is in our mind as traits/ habits and behaviors of social/ cultural in- tercourse is the minds evolutionary path to evolve. It is within this frame that memes emerge as just another inroad to escape our perceived loneliness. We can 't be alone and so we search ways to be bounded to- gether_ memes are today' s communal matrix in that respect.

    And for the fact that we want to be " alone" , see what cocooning has done for us, see how ' social control ' has diminshed in the streets and in our cities, see how modern houses are built, see how we drive our car, see how we act in traffic, see how books, lectures, video 's about self- expression are booming, see how hyper- individualism is making its way in our society/ culture.... see how corporate life is going down the drain. We want to live as islands on our island as islanders.... I am because we ARE !

    Kenneth

    =============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit

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