Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA01946 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 24 Aug 2001 19:17:28 +0100 Message-ID: <001d01c12cc8$cbd06c80$1524f4d8@teddace> From: "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3101746038@inchna.stir.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Song of Myself Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 11:15:44 -0700 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4133.2400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4133.2400 Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> I have to say this persistant misuse of a radio analogy, presumably
stemming
> from Sheldrake himself, is remarkable. How best to argue that biological
> processes are mechanistic... oh well, let's use a mechanical analogy by
> citing radio!
It's a purely logical point. If it's true in *some* cases that an object
(such as a tuner) appears to contain another object (such as a song) while
in reality merely relaying it from a distant source of origin, then it
cannot be logically maintained that in *all* cases the appearance of
containment necessitates containment. The point is that the arising of the
organism from an egg cannot constitute proof that the organism was in any
way "preformed" within that egg. It's only the spell of the preformationism
meme that prevents us from acknowledging this.
> In order for radios to pick up anything more than the hum of big bang, and
> other natural producers of radio waves is if someone somewhere is
> deliberately transmitting signals that have specifically been encoded into
> radio transmissions at particular wavelengths. So if this analogy is a
> better way to think of MR, then who or what is sending the signals, and
how,
> that organisms are supposedly using to construct themselves?
Radio waves involve frequency, not form. When you go up the dial, instead
of receiving higher complexity, all you get is higher frequency. Morphic
resonance is as natural as electromagnetic resonance. The form is
transmitted without any need for a primal transmitter.
> This doesn't get rid of the designer problem at all,
In Sheldrake, there's no design, only the resonance with previous, similar
forms. The organism need not contain within it a preformed version of
itself, be it homunculus, blueprint, code, program, or whatever guise the
preformationism meme acquires in its struggle for survival.
> and as been admitted
> Sheldrake is silent on the how, which leaves it a pretty empty theory.
>
> Vincent
Sheldrake is not silent on the how. It works according to similarity of
form, just as electromag works according to similarity of charge. But
morphic resonance, as a natural explanation for memory, requires that the
transmission be carried out across time rather than space. Intrinsic form
must therefore remain present even as its materialization vanishes.
Sheldrake doesn't explain how this could be true, he merely confirms it
experimentally. He's a scientist, not a philosopher. If you want an
explanation for this, you must proceed onward to Bergson's work on time.
Ted
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