Re: The Demise of a Meme

From: Scott Chase (ecphoric@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Mar 31 2001 - 02:14:08 BST

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    From: "Scott Chase" <ecphoric@hotmail.com>
    To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    Subject: Re: The Demise of a Meme
    Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 20:14:08 -0500
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    >From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
    >Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    >To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
    >Subject: Re: The Demise of a Meme
    >Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2001 08:59:07 -0500
    >
    >On 03/28/01 08:30, Chris Taylor said this-
    >
    >And it was all wonderful until this...
    >
    > >our [memetic] predisposition to see faces
    > >(uniformly convex) overules the (slightly less detailed) sensory
    > >evidence.
    >
    >.... since all the evidence I'm aware of calls the ability (the need, the
    >predisposition) to perceive faces as genetic.
    >
    >What we do with the face is memetic, the fact we see it is genetic.
    >
    >Thus, we have loonies seeing faces on Mars, and then announcing
    >conspiracies to keep ancient martian civilizations secret....
    >
    >
    Somebody posted something about the inkblot tests on here rrecently. Though
    they might not be all they're cracked up to be for evaluation of someone's
    psyche, they might superficially have a hook into how we tend to perceive
    patterns or familiar objects in very arbitrary arrangements (akin to the
    Kantian mode of imposing our own laws onto nature). I've often had fun
    figuring out what clouds like like. There was this bush on the side of the
    road which my friend pointed out that looked like Freddy Krueger from
    "Nightmare on Elm" street when viewed at night while driving by.

    Totally off the subject there's also the face that people present to others.
    I wonder if that tendency toward a filtering process from inside to outside
    is genetic and/or "memetic". Some think of this thingy as an actor's mask or
    "persona".

    OTOH would be the "mask(s)" we perceive in others which may not quite
    overlap with the one they may be presenting. Maybe we shoehorn the behavior
    of others into the wrong cubbyholes ("false patterns")....

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