Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA07148 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 13 Jul 2000 12:05:29 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101745918@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: point of memetic saturation Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 12:03:34 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
I read a newspaper article recently about autism, which described the
condition in an interesting way (although I don't know if the journalist's
metaphor would be accepted by a clinician).
The author said one of the problems of people with autism is how they define
things. So, for example, if they encounter a poodle with a red collar on,
and someone tells them that is a dog, then they accept a poodle with a red
collar as a dog, but only a poodle with a red collar. If they then see
another breed of dog, or even a poodle with a different colour collar on,
they will not recognise it as a dog. The author made an analogy to a tree,
and how normal people can associate and collate lots of variation within a
category like 'dog', resulting in large central branches with offshoots,
whereas autistic people cannot do this, and as such have multitudes of very
thing branches. In this sense, then perhaps autistic people do indeed have
some kind of information overload- either that or they are allergic to other
people's memes!
Vincent
> ----------
> From: Kenneth Van Oost
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 8:12 pm
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: Re: point of memetic saturation
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Wesley Biggs <wbiggs@elite.com>
> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2000 12:46 AM
> Subject: RE: point of memetic saturation
>
>
> > Hello, Kenneth invited me to join this discussion, so I will, but with
> the
> > disclaimer that I am just an interested party, not an expert on the
> topic.
> >
> > > Memes are making us create not only more and more outlets for meme
> > > transmission (e.g. 3rd generation mobile phones), but also new
> receptacles
> > > for memes in artificial intelligence- although we are some way I
> assume
> > from
> > > achieving that.
> >
> > Very true. This points to the dependence of memes on genes. I don't
> think
> > memes can evolve without a host culture. Eco's "The Name of the Rose"
> is
> a
> > great novel about memes and the fragile interdependency between data and
> > media. (I am a medium for my memes.)
> >
> > << Would you say that the world is becoming a ' Digital State ' !? Will
> we
> > one day wake up in a Meme World where the memes are the bodies of
> > consciousness !? Have we then entered a new paradigm of evolution or is
> > that just an ' idea ' of one ' meme ' letting us believe that !? >>
> >
> > Well, that would be a meta-meme describing the state of affairs. I
> think
> > memes are the bodies of our consciousness already. Consider the
> amnesiac
> > who is not "himself" until he can tell you who the president of the
> United
> > States is. Civilization, almost by definition, is based on the
> relegation
> > of genes to provide hosts for memes; a memetic legacy is much more
> important
> > than a genetic one (why else would anyone adopt children?)
>
> <<Memetic legacy more important than a genetic one !?
> How do you explain the memes of an authistic person !?
> Where is the memetic legacy gone to, if an autistic person cna 't really
> communicate with our world !? He is building his own world wherein
> he propagates his own memes. Where/ what is the legay, the info which
> we optain examing an authistic person !?
> To the point of this discussion, in my point of view there is a point of
> memetic saturation present in the world of the authistic.
>
> Regards,
>
> Kenneth
>
> (I am, because we are)
>
>
>
>
> ===============================================================
> 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
>
===============================================================
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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