Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id LAA06334 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 30 Oct 2001 11:34:42 GMT Message-ID: <000701c16136$b33f8fa0$c79ebed4@default> From: "Kenneth Van Oost" <Kenneth.Van.Oost@village.uunet.be> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <E15xwr4-0007H8-00@dryctnath.mmu.ac.uk> Subject: Re: "Smoking" Memes Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 12:32:45 +0100 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2314.1300 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hi Salice,
> People react to smoking in different ways. Some are more likely to get
> cancer from smoking while others don't. My parents for instance are
> both very intense smokers but have no cancer while a lot of people get
> cancer from smoking less than they do. I don't want to make a point
> about whether smoking is good or bad i just want to say that people's
> bodies handle it differently. Some are more likely to get cancer from
> smoking and die from it while others don't.
<< The latest scientific thoughts about this goes as follows,
it seems that each individual must be treated ' individualistic '.
That means that science is thinking now that some parts of the brain/
body are fixed, those parts ( genes) make up the building blocks of
our body ( species bound).
The other parts are free to float around, to express themselves in a
less or more free way ( of course, I suppose, bound to some degree
of genetic/ memetic info).
Those parts, according to Damasio, stand for representaties of the
organism into his own brain and that is due by the whole of brain-
mechanisms which constantly re- present the condition of the living
body in all its aspects.
That, in a sense, means, according to what you write above, that the
body/ brain of your parents, somehow, " allows " them to smoke
without jeapardizing the health of the body itself.
Somehow, in a way, how the brain of your parents re- present the
state of their body into their own mind makes the body/ brain cope
with the hazzards of smoking. That means of course not, that they
will not get ill or,... finally not will die of longcancer.
In a way, your parents biological regulation, still according to Damasio,
allows them somehow to react along some ' mental care ' for the brain
its own survival.
It could be, along lines of inheritance, that genes mutated/ were getting
modified in order not to develop cancer.
How this then would fit into the fitnes scheme is open to debate.
I know, that some investigations were done in the area of the plague and
aids. There too, science found, specific genes blocking the development
of the pest and aids. I have to check my archives for more detail, if you
want.
Regards,
Kenneth
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