From: M Lissack (lissacktravel@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun 01 Feb 2004 - 19:36:06 GMT
the note below illustrates what happens when people
who do not bother to read original work attempt to
critique it on the basis of a few phrases
unfortunately this tendency is all too common
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: FW: groupthink gauntlet: MacArthur's
ill-fated drive toward the Yalu
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:59:06 +0000
From: Arel Lucas <arelxenu@hotmail.com>
To: hkhenson@rogers.com, portal@ontologystream.com
Dear fellow scholars,
I realize that I'm jumping into the middle of
something, and that this behavior might be
ill-mannered, ignorant and useless, but I keep hearing
about this stream from my husband Keith Henson, and,
as the inventor of the word "memetics," I feel it's
possible I might have something to say.
In the first place, I've heard that someone on this
list has been defining "meme" as a "catalytic
indexical" (if that's the correct spelling--if it
isn't I can't find a definition). I disagree on both
counts, assuming that I understand the definitions
involved.
"Catalytic" I take in the chemical sense, as
"Pertaining to or causing catalysis," which is from
the Greek word for "dissolve," or more anciently, to
"loose down," "the causing or accelerating of a
chemical change by the addition of a substance . . .
which is not permanently affected by the reaction."
(The New Century Dictionary, 1946). (I apologize for
the HTML. I really should shut it off. If it makes
this hard to read and you're interested enough to want
a plain text copy, I can send one.)
"Indexical" I take in the WordNet sense,
http://poets.notredame.ac.jp/cgi-bin/wn, essentially
pertaining either to (1) an index, or (2) a fact or
assertion.
Here are the two counts: (1) Catalytic: I agree
that causing or accelerating chemical change is
essential to the definitiion of the action of memes on
the brain. However, a catalyst is not permanently
affected by the reaction it causes. This is where I
disagree. It leaves out the evolutionary aspect that
is the basis of the defition of the word "meme" and
the reason for the creation of the concept by Dawkins,
an evolutionary scientist. When a hemoglobin molecule
catalyzes oxygen reactions, it temporarily changes
shape but does not keep that shape after the reaction
is over. If it changes shape permanently, it does so
in response to damage, ontogeny or phylogeny, but not
in response to the reaction. In that case, it either
changes or cannot catalyze the reaction it typically
facilitates. A meme is not like hemoglobin. It is
more like oxygen. Memes are capable of mutation and
dissemination in and from each brain that receives
them. They can also stop right there and cause no
reaction at all (an essentially Buddhist or Zen
response in the rare case where it is not the result
of an ineffective meme or ignorance, indifference or
genetically based dissociation on the part of the
receiving brain).
Count Two: A meme is not a fact or assertion. Nor is
it an adjective (as is "indexical"). I think the
definition of meme has by this time absorbed those of
"culturgen" and other "idea-related" concepts of
evolving information patterns that affect brains and
cause behaviiors. Nor does a meme pertain to any sort
of index. I have been an indexer, and I can assure
you that all ideas or memes on the planet have not
been indexed. At the point when I began to work on
one, there was no publically available thesaurus of
semiconductors--and still might not be one. I
produced one with several thousand words for Applied
Materials, a private company, and they copyrighted it.
I only got started. And that was just one field,
bordered by physics on the one hand and industrial
processes on the other, with a dimension of social
organization. A lot of definitions have been offered
for memes, and I've defined it in various ways at
different times, but "facts" or "assertions" have no
legitimate place in these definitions, because "facts"
have absolutely nothing to do with the way the brain
works, and little to do with information (especially
defined in physics and engineering).
I realize I don't have Count Zero, but it belongs to
my husband. (If you don't get that feeble joke, you
might not be geeks.)
Incidentally, about MacArthur & the Yalu, I'm not a
historian, but as a newly minted curator and an
archivist of 6 years' duration I've taken an increased
professional interest in something that before had
been just a hobby pursued since I was a teenager (I'm
now 62). The little reading and discussion I've done
about MacArthur's truncated drive into China has led
me to believe that MacArthur was actually right and
that, with the near-perfect hindsight that historical
study can bring, could have continued on into China
and won. As it turns out, the Chinese had massed
their entire forces along the Korean border and were
ill-equipped and supplied. Had Truman, overwhelmed by
fears and advice that he would start World War III,
not stopped him, the Chinese government might have
been conquered at that point. Of course, what would
have happened after that might have been a prolonged
and early Vietnam-type conflict, so perhaps it
wouldn't have been such a good idea. I remember
talking witih the son of Chinese immigrants who had
been deprived of all their businesses and belongings
and chased from China under threat of death by the
Communists. During the time I was reading and
listening to tapes about MacArthur & Truman, he told
me that he really wished the Americans had continued
that drive. His parents, he said, would not be the
bitter and poverty-stricken exiles they were in the
early '90s.
By the way, do you know who won the Korean War? Kim
Philby. He was the British spy who ultimately
defeated MacArthur and led to MacArthur's paranoid
assumptions of infiltration of the US government.
Every time he turned around, it seemed to MacArthur,
the Koreans knew what he was doing. It never seems to
have occurred to MacArthur that the spy he knew was
ratting on him was in the British service, with whom
the Americans were sharing their troop movements and
other intelligence. No wonder he assumed Washington
was riddled with Communists! His suspicions helped
fuel the McCarthy era. So Philby indirectly caused
that too. Ah, memes!
Arel Lucas
"We are the champignons, my friend. And we'll . . ."
Why are you laughing?
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===============================================================
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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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