Re: Cons and Facades/memetic engineering

From: Kenneth Van Oost (Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be)
Date: Tue Jun 27 2000 - 19:22:50 BST

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    From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be>
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    Subject: Re: Cons and Facades/memetic engineering
    Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2000 20:22:50 +0200
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    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Wade T.Smith <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
    To: Memetics Discussion List <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    Sent: Monday, June 26, 2000 1:16 AM
    Subject: Re: Cons and Facades/memetic engineering

    > 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?

    Wade,

    People' s needs!
    Do you know Megan's Law !? Are you American !?
    If not, let me summarize. In a nutshell, local authorities are due to let
    the
    people of a district know if/ when/ where a sex-offender is gonna live in
    your neighbourhood. What are the moral objections here !?
    Who is getting frustrated, you or the offender who where ever he/ she goes
    is always pointed one finger. He can't find a job, has no home, no place to
    be.
    Do you think this is the ultimate solution !?
    I do not !

    But I don't state the following is the ultimate solution either, but one.
    In my opinion a sex- offender has no ' place ' where he can turn to if the
    need is to high. If you are a drunk you go to a pub, if you like speed you
    go the racetrack, but for sex, yes you can go to the whores, but that is
    not the kind of sex the offender wants. He wants rape, childabuse and
    in the extreme murder.
    I know, I know, it is very extreme, but I go always straight for the heart !

    So, I propose you have a look what ' Holodeck- Technology ' has to offer.
    The webpages I can't give because the addresses are not mentioned, but just
    click Holodeck or Fractal Animatronics or Nanotechnology.
    I think that kind of technology can provide us in the futher with some
    practical applications towards helping people with ' sex-problems '.
    Of course, once you set the technology in motion you create all kind of
     'moral ' problems. If you want to know more about them, let me know,
    I will give you gladly my view on them.

    Hope you have less objections now.
    My aim is true.

    Many regards,

    Kenneth

    (I am, because we are) I hope.
    > 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.
    >

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