Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA02946 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 5 Oct 2000 22:16:10 +0100 X-Authentication-Warning: tracy.umd.edu: debivort owned process doing -bs Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 17:13:27 -0400 (EDT) From: "Lawrence H. de Bivort" <debivort@umd5.umd.edu> X-Sender: debivort@tracy.umd.edu To: Memetics Discussion List <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Purported mystical "knowledge" In-Reply-To: <20001005035631.AAA50@camailp.harvard.edu@[204.96.32.169]> Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.4.21.0010051707180.28645-100000@tracy.umd.edu> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
I would agree with Wayne, generally: I see memes as things that program
people and their thinking, that constrain the range of options that they
can consider.
I also wonder, though, whether there may not be a set of memes of such a
basic character that without them a person would be 'lost,' culturally,
having always to rethink things, and possibly making decisions so wrong
(by conventional standards) that it renders the person socially
dysfunctional.
I guess this approaches the age-old question of how much freedom is
enough, and how much too much.
Lawrence de Bivort
The Memetics Group
On Wed, 4 Oct 2000, Wade T.Smith wrote:
>Hi Brent Silby --
>
>>It is hard to imagine a mind with absolutely no memes. It would be a
>>dull, non-eventful blank space.
>
>Or it would be completely free and active in all realms and to every
>situation, without the prisons and walls of beliefs and society.
>
>The world without memes does not seem dull at all to me, just the
>contrary- it seems edenic.
>
>- Wade
>
>===============================================================
>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
>
|---------------------------------------------|
| ESI |
| Evolutionary Services Institute |
| "Crafting opportunities for a better world" |
| 5504 Scioto Road, Bethesda, MD 20816, USA |
| (301) 320-3941 |
|---------------------------------------------|
===============================================================
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 archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Oct 05 2000 - 22:18:12 BST