Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id AAA14550 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 26 Jun 2000 00:18:47 +0100 Subject: Re: Cons and Facades/memetic engineering Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 19:16:06 -0400 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20000625231610.AAA17714@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.121]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Kenneth Van Oost made this comment not too long ago --
>But I also wish that you give us the time to prove that the idea of memetic
>engineering can benefit other people's needs and not our own.
This is an interesting sidebar to the objections any of us may have about
the phrase 'memetic engineering', in that, where do we find the line
between people's needs and our own? And how, having found it, do we walk
it?
I think the work of analyzation of culture and behavior is far from done,
and the work of determining where the meme-line is is only in its newest
infancy, and since I feel that way, I also feel introducing the
_engineering_ of a incompletely analyzed and discovered element of human
interaction is reckless in the extreme. If the moral objections posed to
memetic engineering are there because one doesn't want a novice in the
cockpit, then, yes, I agree. But so far, I ain't seen a cockpit. But I
have seen a lot of people selling tickets in front of a tent.
- Wade
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