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I' d be grateful for any feedback on the followig article, which I hope will
eventually evolve into a paper for JoM.
I will post it in several parts due to its lenght.
For feedback, if you all want, wait untill I posted all the parts !?
Part 1
We all do understand memes to represent units of information passed on in
some form of communication between two or more organisms/ brains.
We comprehend memes as intentions, fears, emotions, beliefs, suppositions,
aspirations,...as they are found in language, ideologies, theories and religions.
We do also understand that a Self, that I reflects those memes.
It is I who likes the icecream, it is I who wants to be a billionaire, it is I who is
aware (of some parts) of my memes and it is I who is trying to write this.
This I is the heart of the Self(plex), I work to defend it, to promote it, even I
think hard about it to understand it better. Is that is the case then ' my '
memes will strive and succeed where others fail, and that Self(plex) of mine
will grow. ( Idit Susan Blackmore/ Memes, Myself and I)
Once the 'Self ' has begun to grow, it can begin in trying to propagate itself.
It does that throughout the memetic concept that every time it comes across
an ' idea ' ( more considered as definition, belief, action, detail, connotion, as
aniother context/ content, interpretation_idit Robert Clewley) it will meet it
with the notion ' I like that ' or ' I don 't want that '.
This ' selfish behaviour ' of the memeplex ' Self ' makes one thing cristal
clear_the little ' me ' inside me is an illusion, it is a memeplex of sensa-
tions, activity and consciousness of which I think it lives my life and makes
up my decisions.
So rather than being a permanent, persisting entity, the Self may be more
like a story about a Self that does not really exist. But is that true !?
Can we believe those ideas !?
We all have the notion of an ' Inner self ', it is Me who walks around in the
park, it is me who hears the birds sing, it is me feeling the breeze...it is me
who touches the trees, it is me who takes everything at a glance...or is it
only a projection of the mind_a projection of something from ' in here ' to
' out there ' !?
In other words, can it be that memetics in general and our truly knowable
selfish memes are nothing more than a creation by theirselves !?
If memes, as we established are selfish (they show no mercy) and they
created the world in the way as we know it today ( including the first memes
for the very first genes) haven ' t they then not created the world in a solip-
sistic way !?
After all, are they then not egoistic, in some sense moral self- interested
primary in their doing and being !?
Memes act in such a way, so what is the point !?
The point is if we think about memes in memetic theories we attribute them
a collectiviness, a subjective over all else, a sameness. We tend to homogenise
the nature of memes without the analysis in depth of what is regarded as the
true primacy of individual (private) ideas.
What we ' know ' ( as a human individual), as the ' me ' who experiences this
life) are all the perceived objects and events which are merely the products
of ' our ' personal consciousness and in fact we can suppose that this con-
sciousness alone is genuinely real and that nothing beyond this conscious-
ness exists.
For all I know:- I know ( I belief) I do exist, and only this ' Self ' exist and only
this ' Self ' can be known to exist only as a result of my experiences and
beliefs, only by itself...by Me !!
In principle, existence then means for me ' my ' existence and that of
' my ' mental states due to the fact that ' my ' mems interact and make
up a solipsistic world out there where they can propagate themselves.
A strong argument for such a suggestion is provided in the hypothesis
that the brain genrates reality from information which comes in thru ' the
eyes and in order to make up an accurate map of what ' my ' reality is,
the brain fills up the gaps with imagination.
The reality out there is (partly) an optional extra. What counts is what
is happening inside the brain and what happens there in complety personal.
In a sense the brain secretes its own private ' reality ' wherein ' me ', who
experiences this ' reality ' is somewhat a convergepoint/ a host whereby
info/ memes are/ is perceived, gets transformed and is/ are send ' back
out ' again.
End of part One
===============================================================
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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