Re: Individual - Collective / digest V1#1480

From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed 25 Feb 2004 - 17:02:34 GMT

  • Next message: Scott Chase: "Re: Individual - Collective / digest V1#1480"

    >From: Chris Taylor <christ@ebi.ac.uk>
    >Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >Subject: Re: Individual - Collective / digest V1#1480
    >Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2004 13:29:38 +0000
    >
    >I think what you think is a large, weird shaped hammer is actually a whole
    >tool box -- stop hitting your particular nail with the thing and try
    >looking inside. Less negative, more positive plz.
    >
    Actually I find critical reflection (or the emotionally laden negativity?) and skepticism to be healthy and important for this list to mature and memetics to grow. Thiele and Lissack have done their parts. We can't all be
    "me too" cheerleaders. Even a devil's advocate would be good once in a while, to slow down the toboggan or check its course.

    There are other toolboxes out there, but they may have compatibility problems, like English measure versus metric socket sets, but sometimes a metric socket is close enough to use on an English sized bolt or nut without stripping it.
    >
    >Cheers, Chris.
    >
    >M Lissack wrote:
    >
    >>To Kenneth, Steven, and Scott
    >>
    >>When all one has is a hammer, very many things "seem"
    >>to be nails. And the strange thing is that a high
    >>percentage of those "nails" will behave just like
    >>"real nails" (be pushed further into a substrate) when
    >>"treated" with the hammer. That much of the remainder
    >>get "crushed" is merely an outgrowth of only having a
    >>hammer.
    >>
    >>Of course eventually someone comes along who points
    >>out that the back edge of the hammer can be used to
    >>pry things out and to carry ssome objects around. Then others will propose
    >>that with care the back edge
    >>can be used to "open things" and still others that
    >>combinations of all these steps when carefully
    >>executed can be used in certain environments to
    >>"gather, harvest, sort, and reconstruct."
    >>
    >>The original simple idea that "all things are nails"
    >>which underlay the concept of "use the tool you've
    >>got" has now been replaced but the "use the tool
    >>you've got" overlay remains. The idea of "how" to use
    >>that tool has been transformed from a simple code --
    >>swing the hammer and hit -- to a more complex
    >>locational process which involves examining the
    >>environment and then determining which of several
    >>potential uses.
    >>
    >>To the "purists" none of this matters. I have a
    >>hammer and I use it.
    >>
    >>Memes as ideas which "carry" their own reproductive
    >>force and which are subject to Darwinian "selection
    >>pressures" are in some stage of the evolution of the
    >>hammer above.
    >>
    >>And the bulk of the posters to this list (and we have
    >>NO IDEA what the lurkers think) are purists.
    >>
    >>===============================================================This
    >>was distributed via the memetics list associated with
    >>theJournal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of
    >>Information TransmissionFor information about the
    >>journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)see:
    >>http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
    >>
    >>
    >>__________________________________
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    >>
    >>===============================================================
    >>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
    >>
    >>
    >
    >--
    >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    > Chris Taylor (christ@ebi.ac.uk)
    > MIAPE Project -- psidev.sf.net
    >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    >
    >===============================================================
    >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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    =============================================================== 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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