Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id QAA08561 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 21 Jun 2001 16:26:14 +0100 Subject: Re: Fwd: Familiar images make false impressions Date: Thu, 21 Jun 2001 11:22:17 -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: <20010621152227.AAA121@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 06/21/01 10:31, Philip Jonkers said this-
>Both are simple to remember and easy to replicate reliably
Yup.
They also fit well with other diagrams and descriptions we've seen in
many other places - the growth of a plant, the metamorphosis of insects,
the orbits of the planets (themselves made simpler by making them
circular).
It is not, quite, possible to make the layered clouds of possible
locations of an electron, the quantum reality, simple in the same way as
the orbital circles, but, it is not an impossible image to spread, (now
that the technology of image-making has become household), and in fact,
it is rather attractive.
It should also be not impossible to spread (via museum exhibit and
textbook upgrades) a more accurate representation of early hominids, and
I think this is already progressing. The local museum of science has just
put in a new, loping and tail-waving T. Rex model, replacing the old,
upright one which greeted every visitor.
One of the weaknesses of the conference (or perhaps one of the weaknesses
of the little that I attended and thus witnessed) was the acceptance of
the famous images, without a concerted effort to make, through new
images, an attempt at more simple and easily grasped explanations of
complex discoveries and mechanisms.
At its core, evolution has extremely understandable structures and
mechanisms - it's a series of surviving algorithms, after all. Fractals
are likewise extremely understandable and brilliantly evocative as
images, and have cornered a small market of public interest.
But it is true that images lead us to other knowledges and interests with
strong force, and we are visually based for knowledge acquisition.
Regardless of what we hear, we need to look to know what's making the
noise.
Sontag, for all her brilliance (and I do think she is brilliant), happy
that 'words' lie at the end of the knowledge rainbow, is perhaps too
close to them to realize that these are seen things, these words, and the
pot of gold must be apprehended and touched.
- Wade
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