From: Dace (edace@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon 11 Apr 2005 - 02:32:35 GMT
> From: Steve Wallis <swallis@sbcglobal.net>
>
> We seem to have that in common with memes, that some
> are short sighted, while others strive for synergistic
> benefits.
Memes are neither short-sighted nor far-sighted. They are not sighted at
all. A meme either replicates and spreads, or it doesn't and dies. It
"strives" only to survive, to maintain its place in the living system, much
like genes in an organism.
> Just as we humans are entering a post-humanis era and
> recognizing the importance of the environment (we
> can't live without one), perhaps memes will learn that
> theiy can improve their lot by helping we humans
> (after all, we seem to be their environment).
Memes have no idea what humans are. We don't register to them. We're the
background they never look at, the wallpaper never noticed. Under pressure
to replicate in a memetically saturated environment, memes have no
"awareness" beyond this struggle. Oblivious to the roles they play in
shaping our cultures and lives, they proliferate at the expense of our
autonomy and our capacity for creative intelligence. The more they stamp
our thinking, the more routinized and predictable we become. It's the herd
mentality. Memes are creatures of habit, and to the extent that our minds
are memetically colonized, so are we.
People learn; memes replicate. That a meme evolves in response to changing
cultural factors doesn't mean it has "learned" anything about actual human
culture. A newly emergent meme is just another groove to settle into,
another direction for the herd to take. Like genes, which impose traits
onto the emerging organism without having to "know" it for what it is, memes
just go about the work of self-replication and let conscious agents, aka
people, sort out what's beneficial and what's toxic.
ted
> - --- Dace <edace@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > Steve,
> >
> > > Sounds very chaos/complexity theory-ish.
> > >
> > > We might be ruled by giant meme-plexes, but we
> > also
> > > use smaller memes to serve ourselves. We can
> > > deconstruct the meme-plexes into smaller chunks to
> > use
> > > them.
> >
> > Ah, but by then the smaller chunks have turned
> > against us. Memes follow
> > their own need to reproduce in a potentially hostile
> > environment, not our
> > need to bring order and coherence to our worldviews.
> >
> > ted
> >
> >
> > - --- Dace <edace@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > > > It occurred to me while reading a tribute to
> > Derrida
> > > > in The Philosopher's
> > > > Magazine (issue 29) that there's a distinct
> > memetic
> > > > component to the concept
> > > > of deconstruction. This is Alan Montefiore on
> > what
> > > > he learned from Derrida:
> > > >
> > > > "First and foremost perhaps-- though I doubt
> > whether
> > > > he would have put it
> > > > this way-- that the meanings of terms... never
> > come
> > > > as it were in hard
> > > > nuggets, but that under pressure they tend
> > always to
> > > > spread out in all
> > > > directions, to 'disseminate,' as he himself
> > might
> > > > indeed have said. Thus
> > > > one is always at risk of finding one's own
> > meanings
> > > > sliding away from
> > > > oneself-- as, indeed, we have been taught from
> > > > another, but not totally
> > > > other, perspective by Freud and his diverse
> > > > followers.
> > > >
> > > > "Second, that within these spreading
> > entanglements,
> > > > if we follow them
> > > > through far and diligently enough, we shall
> > > > (almost?) always find elements
> > > > of mutual contradiction which, when set free to
> > work
> > > > as such, may, like some
> > > > disseminating cancer, threaten the very
> > discourse in
> > > > which they are embedded
> > > > with reduction to a kind of self-destroying
> > > > incoherence."
> > > >
> > > > "And third, that one should not hope or pretend
> > that
> > > > even the very discourse
> > > > within which one may attempt to formulate these
> > > > insights could maintain any
> > > > claim to a securely superior status..."
> > > >
> > > > Seems that the memes we launch from the head
> > come
> > > > back to bite us in the
> > > > ass.
> > > >
> > > > ted
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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