From: Keith Henson (hkhenson@rogers.com)
Date: Mon 07 Apr 2003 - 05:09:18 GMT
At 05:36 PM 06/04/03 +0200, Kenneth wrote:
snip
>There is, as far I can tell, no indication in the case of Gage that
>a genetic component played a part in the changing of the be-
>havior.
>There is no indication that Gage's personal character- charate-
>ristics were changed upon a genetic level, they were simply
>overthrown by the memetic elements.
A person can be born without legs or loose them later. The result is the
same, they can't walk.
I am reasonably sure there are genetic conditions which mimic the sad
situation Gage was in after his injury.
Your points are correct that Gage no longer obeyed a lot of social
conventions directly due to his injury and that the injury had no genetic
component.
Because his memory was not seriously damaged, I rather think he knew most
of the memes of good social behavior, and if asked about them, probably
could have passed those memes on to young people. But acting on them (or
rather inhibiting his anti-social impulses) had been lost to him like the
ability to walk is lost to a person with his legs amputated at the hip.
Keith Henson
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