Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA14249 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 19 Apr 2001 15:17:37 +0100 Subject: Re: The Status of Memetics as a Science Date: Thu, 19 Apr 2001 10:13:20 -0400 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20010419141340.AAA10385@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 04/19/01 09:25, Lawrence DeBivort said this-
>it might give rise to an engineering
>application that might be misused ethically or socially.
Indeed. (Well, perhaps....) Although, the study of something requires
that something to be in place already, and it is, unfortunately,
certainly the case that there are abuses, ethically and socially, of
behaviors and behavioral conditioning.
There is some validity in claiming that all society is abuse of behavior.
Thus we have Crowley and 'do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the
law'. There is some validity in claiming that some techniques of
marketing and advertising are taking unfair advantage of people's
emotional states, and some validity to the claim that care-workers
(psychologists, therapists, counselors) are taking unfair advantage of
similar emotional states, and there is some validity to the claim that
any organized religion will always be in the business of denying
knowledge for the purpose of control of a populace, and some validity to
the claim that anything not evidentially concise is morally corrupt to
offer as truth, such as all alternative medical treatments.
So, yes, there is a large body of validity to the claim that such ethical
and social abuse is well-established and ongoing and perhaps, intrinsic.
Memetics would be well-applied if it endeavored to correct these
situations.
Knowledge is freedom, and information is knowledge.
- Wade
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