Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id GAA09928 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 12 Sep 2000 06:03:50 +0100 From: <LJayson@aol.com> Message-ID: <8e.a64cd16.26ef1278@aol.com> Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2000 01:00:40 EDT Subject: Article, A Solipsistic View On Memetics - Part 4 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk CC: Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 117 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Part 4
What IMHO have to be solved are mainly two things, A_ the problem of the
other minds/ humanoid objects and B_ what is the knowledge in casu, what are
the memes originating from out those minds !?
Good evening Kenneth,
With Dutch being your native language, you do very well with English.
Please tell me what does IHMO stand for?
I could not find "casu" in the M-W Dictionary?
There can, in the philosophical way of this article, only be one answer:-
since what I know to exist is the content of my own mind, it follows that all
the rest has to be in some some way a part of that knowledge. This is what in
philosophy is called ' the argument from analogy '.
That is, I can ( infer) assume that the behaviourpatterns/ the mental states
and the memetic activity inside my brain also occurs and is present in others.
The problem with this view is of course the notion that I should be the only
mind to known to exist_thus, how can I explain the presence of other minds !?
Len:
You don't know what specific memeplexes exist in other minds but you can,
with reasonable certainty, believe that various and sundry memeplexes
are present in all brains.
We did established that memes act in a solipsistic way, we do know also that
the brain can ' t ' see ' everything in one single moment, to give us a
sense of reality it imagines a world together out of memories/ memes which
are then
projected in front of us as the characterized environment where we at that
particualr point in time live in.
In order to keep ' my relaity ' vived and up to date the brain is constant
acti-
vily scanning the outside world, somehow it pin points itself onto a subject,
recalls/ reconstruct the info ( prior to the knowledge of the individual(s)
concerned and
the peculiarities of each situation), places the whole into a context and
throws it
back out again into the outside world as a snapshot of reality of that moment.
A picture of our world, which we do understand perfectly !!
Len:
Very good description.
But what about all the rest !? It is hardly understandeble that our brain have
made up all of the materialistic things which are surrounding us, even hard
and probably harder to understand is the concept of the others, what are they
and what are they doing here !?
Len:
The human brain has not internalized all of the materialistic things in the
environment; it contains no more than meme bits and pieces---at
various levels of awareness and understanding. Our concept of others
will depend on one's mental meme gestalt. A physician, a priest,
a child, serial killer, a female, a male, and so on---each one will see
others in terms of their own preconceived memeplexes.
As indicated as above, the mind can only pick up a given moment in time and
this abstraction is a small part of reality acquired by the human being which
I am to respond to different stimuli. All the rest, then, has to be part of a
materia-
lised memory/ imagination in order to shape, in an understaneble way, that
part of reality.
Len:
Very well said. I agree that we cannot tolerate the uncertainties of
an environment with missing pieces.
The logical way, somehow, is to pre- suppose the existence of a number
infinite
solipsistic memeplexes which each in their direction, form, concept, relation,
atc...are part of mine individual personal and unique memory storage tank.
Len:
Do you think that my memeplex has the same direction, form, concept,
relation as the memeplex of a Brazilian native living in a primitive tribe
far removed from modern civilization?
Somehow, analogous to the memeplex of my brain, they too, ( in casu the
others brains too) pin point theirselves onto a subject, processes the info
and
send it back out again as a part of my ' reality '.
Len:
Whether or not it becomes part of our reality, do we have a choice?
This is given the nature of memes not possible_ memes has no ' forsight ',
they can 't work independly from a brain. ( Experiments show however that
such conclusions should not be taken for granted )
Len:
I appreciate this comment immensely. One of my problems with Blackmore
is that she somehow gives memes 'a life of their own' ---it is our human
brains that power the memes based on our minds' receptivitiy.' In college,
I was forced to take beginning geology. I disliked the instructor, had no
interest in the subject, as a result the thousands of memes that came out
of his mouth failed to take root in my brain---my brain was somewhere else
than the classroom. A meme is no more than "hot air" without a receptive
brain to give it another existence. P. S. I failed Geology 101 but got an
A the second time around, next semester---excellent instructor,
lovely memes + an attentive student!) :-)
Consequently, it follows that the others have to be ' brains ' too, created
by
memeplexes in order to held all of the primary data which my brain acquires
to make up a secondary psychological concept which ultimally results into an
image of my reality.
Len:
Do you think that we need others to create our own sense of reality?
Won't a young boy growing up in the jungle, without other humans,
create his own special reality?
Helen Keller possessed a reality even without the ability to
see and hear.
To take a concrete example:- most of my holidays I spent in De Haan, a
coastal community not far from Ostend. Even before I iever begin to pack my
things together my brain has already assured itself of the necessarily
imagetry, memeories and aspects, precisly those fundamental choises are made
to get
me where I want to be ( primary).
Once there, and I stroll down the promenade, everything as I remerbered it,
is there (secondary)_ people, houses, children toys, the wind, the sunshine...
but the question has to be faced as to how of what I see is the same like
the last time !?
Some criteria are the same, others I perceive for the first time_like people
who I meet, situations which are developing...The difficulty here, is to
understand this.
How is it possible that things of which i know that they only exist as know-
ledge in my mind, change out there in the outside world !?
Len:
Things changed because between the first and second visits, you 'changed'
becoming a somewhat "new" person with millions of additonal memes that
modified the old memes that were already there---giving you new
perspectives. I believe that our brain meme accumulation process
is not linear but rather synergistic.
End of part Four
Looking forward to working on part 5 tomorrow.
Best regards,
Len
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