Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id JAA00941 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 26 Mar 2001 09:20:28 +0100 From: "Chris Lofting" <ddiamond@ozemail.com.au> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: The Demise of a Meme Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 18:31:01 +1000 Message-ID: <LPBBICPHCJJBPJGHGMCIMEDJCPAA.ddiamond@ozemail.com.au> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <A4400389479FD3118C9400508B0FF230010D1B7B@DELTA.newhouse.akzonobel.nl> X-RBL-Warning: (orbs.dorkslayers.com) 203.2.192.81 is listed by dorkslayers.com Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> -----Original Message-----
> From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
> Of Gatherer, D. (Derek)
> Sent: Monday, 26 March 2001 4:48
> To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
> Subject: RE: The Demise of a Meme
>
>
> >Science, however, is not theatrical
>
> Oh, it is, I'm afraid. There are some great performers out
> there, and also
> some great producers who are not performers but direct expertly
> from behind
> the scenes. There are Oscars (Nobels), auditions, something very like a
> studio system (Oxbridge, Stanford etc) and even on occasion, gulp, casting
> couches.....
>
yes .. heard a comment from someone re Hawking and his book re time. Comment
was that the book was not science .. it was a romance novel describing
Hawking's relationship with the universe...
Any form of distortion/exageration has theatrical tones. Theatre is usually
more about people than objects and as such emphasises emotion, refined
feelings, subtle nuances, but substitution is possible...
From a neurological/cognitive perspective the emphasis is on cardinality
over ordinality where cardinality is linked to topology, twisting, turning
etc more 'right' brained, precision is 'approximate' and pattern detection
favoured. Ordinality is more 'left' brained. The interaction allows the
cardinality bias to be zoomed-in upon to get details and out of that emerges
discreteness that can then be used as feedback to 'refine' the cardinal
perspective. The topological emphasis allows for the brain to adapt to any
'extremes', it is extremely flexible at birth. 'Left' thinking develops as
we develop language and a sense of self and so ordinality takes over and the
cardinal 'side' is specialised into context relationships, metaphor
encode/decoding etc and that is where theatre comes in in the form of
*implicit* social comments etc and there is a social emphasis in Science
expressed in the institutions of science. Academia politics could do well as
a daytime TV soap!
In the sense of social interactions we are 'talking' topological processes
where a specific culture goes through twists and turns, stretching and
shrinking, but underneath the 'same'. Thus topological processes reflect
'wholes' at work, dynamic processes working within but the distinction is
not broken, the linkage of 'everthing is linked together' is maintained, the
links get distorted/exagerated etc. It takes the ordinal to 'cut', implying
that the ordinal is derived from the cardinal, particular from general, and
when you look at development of species that seems to be supported with only
us being the 'super-ordinals' :-)
Wasnt 'cold fusion' theatre?... that said isnt the intent of Science to
identify the formulas and algorithms behind expressions, to get the STEPS
that lead to the expression? The problem is the theatrical elements --
russian genetics suffered due to theatre, and that was theatre where the
stars were scientists (or one in particular and the rest tried to avoid
being shot? -- more theatre).
Show biz - what fun!
Chris.
------------------
Chris Lofting
websites:
http://www.eisa.net.au/~lofting
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~ddiamond
List Owner: http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/semiosis
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