Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id KAA07989 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 21 Mar 2001 10:24:47 GMT Date: Wed, 21 Mar 2001 10:03:57 +0000 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: The Demise of a Meme Message-ID: <20010321100357.A11003@reborntechnology.co.uk> References: <20010321012144.AAA27991@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.85]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.15i In-Reply-To: <20010321012144.AAA27991@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.85]>; from wade_smith@harvard.edu on Tue, Mar 20, 2001 at 08:21:45PM -0500 From: Robin Faichney <robin@reborntechnology.co.uk> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On Tue, Mar 20, 2001 at 08:21:45PM -0500, Wade T.Smith wrote:
>
> Science, to me, and I will and would need a terrific force to move me
> from this mountain, is the way to find what is, and no meme, possibly
> even no language, is required to find a working element of nature.
Memes are required to represent reality -- every scientific theory, no
matter how well or badly supported by experiment, is a memeplex.
> And whatever wants to find one, can. I would contend that the memeless
> 'eureka' state, is required, and that is what science is to me- this
> discovery, and I really, really, don't think discovery is possible with a
> meme in the way.
Theories -- memeplexes -- are required to suggest potentially fruitful
avenues of exploration, and to interpret the results when they come.
You don't mention experimentation once. I think you're confusing
personal insight with scientific discovery. The two can overlap,
as in the original "eureka", but they're different things. One is of
primarily personal significance, and private, the other is of universal
significance, and must be shared to be validated.
Science is not "out there". To think that is to confuse it with reality,
which in fact exists whether anyone is studying it or not. Science is a
set of memeplexes that, ideally, reflect reality exactly, but in practice
are always vulnerable to being found imperfect.
-- Robin Faichney Get your Meta-Information from http://www.ii01.org (CAUTION: contains philosophy, may cause heads to spin)=============================================================== 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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