RE: Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science

From: Trupeljak Ozren (ozren_trupeljak@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Apr 24 2001 - 06:54:45 BST

  • Next message: Vincent Campbell: "RE: The Status of Memetics as a Science"

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    Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 22:54:45 -0700 (PDT)
    From: Trupeljak Ozren <ozren_trupeljak@yahoo.com>
    Subject: RE: Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a Science
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    --- Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> wrote:
    > Ooh... stirring up a huge can of worms here!!!
    >
    >
    > (BTW, for me, a difference is that science has a non-arbitrary
    > relationship
    > to reality in terms of trying to examine questions of causality,
    > demonstrable in its effectiveness in providing solutions to problems,
    > and
    > offering new capacities for human behaviour.)
    >
    > Vincent
    >
    All of which is true for almost any religion you can shake your
    proverbial stick at. As far as I know, no religions have arbitrary
    relationship with reality, their examinations of causality can
    sometimes be very subtle and elegant, and as I previously stated, they
    *do* produce solutions to problems while offering new capacities for
    human behaviour (look at my already mentioned example of talibans in
    Afghanistan: they solved the problem (solid, material reminder that
    there are other religions out there) by ordering soldiers to shoot at
    Buddha's (isn't that a new capacity for human behavior? How many people
    can brag that they did *that*?;)..)

    Admittedly, though, science has a tendency to find truths about the
    universe in a far greater quantity then any other religion, thus
    offering its followers more power. If one believes that knowledge is
    power.

    Now, how did that old saying go, about the absolute power, hm?
    :)

    (I still like being a Morloch, though.)
    > > ----------
    > > From: Trupeljak Ozren
    > > Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > > Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2001 7:01 am
    > > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > > Subject: Re: Darwinizing Culture: The Status of Memetics as a
    > Science
    > >
    > >
    > > --- Scott Chase <ecphoric@hotmail.com> wrote:
    > >
    > > > Isn't there some sort of virus church BTW (see St.
    > > > Dawkin's article in April
    > > > 19, 1999's issue of _Time_ magazine, p 52-3 ;))? Not
    > > > that this would
    > > > implicate memetics as a religion. It's more like a
    > > > fad (an intellectual hula
    > > > hoop).
    > > > >
    > > > >--J. R.
    > >
    > > Check it out on virus.lucifer.com.
    > >
    > > What is the difference between science and religion
    > > anyway? I might be discovering warm water all over
    > > again, but both seem to be based on a set of rules of
    > > perception that can not be proved within that set, and
    > > both have a tendency to be exclusive of each other as
    > > much as different religions are exclusive of each
    > > other...When I am asking what is the difference, I was
    > > asking about the structural ones; obviously science
    > > gives us quite a bit more useful tools and toys then
    > > religions usualy do...;)
    > >
    > > N.Sh.Z.
    > >
    > >
    > > __________________________________________________
    > > Do You Yahoo!?
    > > Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices
    > > http://auctions.yahoo.com/
    > >
    > > ===============================================================
    > > 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 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
    >

    =====
    There are very few man - and they are exceptions - who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment.

    Carl von Clausewitz

    __________________________________________________
    Do You Yahoo!?
    Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices
    http://auctions.yahoo.com/

    ===============================================================
    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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