Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id OAA08726 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 31 Oct 2001 14:24:41 GMT Subject: RE: Study shows brain can learn without really trying Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 09:19:14 -0500 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: <20011031141916.AAA8629@camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 10/31/01 09:27, salice said this-
>When you try to concentrate hard on something useless you'll just
>perform badly IMHO.
What we've all noticed seems to me most salient when one sees that
pattern recognition is a built-in, hard-wired faculty, and that it seems
that one cannot 'tap' into this function. Call it intuition, it is also
very close to what creativity is and does. Most every record of the
eureka moment discusses the period of inactivity on the task at hand,
that restbit of time grabbed in frustration or desperation when the
answer has not come, and other pursuits, completely unrelated, are
engaged. 'Without warning' 'out of the blue' 'in my sleep' 'from left
field' - all these are descriptions of the moment the answer (or the
shape, or the phrase, or the equation...) comes.
So it would seem that the creative moment is a conscious use of the
unconscious recognition of pattern.
Where memes are within this process is undetermined, and, with my
increasing cynicism, I'm willing to declare them irrelevant, immaterial,
and incompetent. Memes, when used as elements of the creative product
(via the self-described attempts at 'memetic engineering' or 'market
targeting') can only construct (political) propaganda.
- Wade
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