From: Philip Jonkers (philosophimur@dygo.com)
Date: Fri 16 May 2003 - 16:04:43 GMT
--- Keith Henson <hkhenson@rogers.com> wrote:
>At 06:14 AM 16/05/03 -0700, Phil wrote:
>>Reed:
>> > I find memes in the mind to be a more intuitive
>> >way of thinking about memes. It's easier to explain to people. It's not
>> >TRUE. But then, no model is true.
>>
>>In science, thinking in terms of black and white is usually not very
>>expedient. If you adopt the entire spectrum of grey colors a whole
>>magnificent world of tolerance and possibility opens up. Models of
>>even the simplest of systems are not true, that's why they are called
>>models to begin with. A model aims at capturing the essentials of the
>>system it is supposed to describe. By the inherently sheer
>>complexity of the system and the inherently sheer lack of computing power
>>and/or skillfulness on the part of the modeler, the model almost per se is
>>but an approximation to the real system. The accuracy of
>>the approximation with respect to the real system at hand (TRUTH content,
>>if you will) depends on the ingenuity and skillfulness of the modeler
>>among other things.
>>
>>So, to recap, indeed while no model really is true in the purely black
>>and white sense some models are more true than others if you
>>are willing to allow all those glorious shades of gray. The
>>trick, or art if you like, relevant in science is to find models
>>that give you maximum amounts of truth content (in the least amount
>>of effort).
>
>Right.
>
>Considering a meme to be the information itself, no matter what media the
>information resides in, I think is the maximum truth for the least
>effort. It certainly makes sense in the context of Reed's baseball islands
>story.
No argument here...
>Then we can go on to discussing how pernicious memes make use of evolved
>psychological traits to get cult members to amputate their 'nads or worse
>to fly aircraft into tall buildings.
>
>Keith Henson
Yes, I'm in...
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