Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id TAA23674 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 16 Nov 2001 19:44:42 GMT Message-ID: <003101c16ecc$ca960e60$1adab3d1@teddace> From: "Dace" <edace@earthlink.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: Re: Study shows brain can learn without really trying Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 10:30:36 -0800 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_002E_01C16E89.BB3D0D80" 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-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
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Had to split this up into two parts.
td
> <Hi Vincent
>
> Well, I interpreted the comment sent in a particular way based on
> the apparent idea that individual success within a social group is
> influenced by self-awareness. It was the context of your presentation
> that made me comment in that way.
That an individual with greater than average mental reflectivity is more
likely to succeed doesn't mean that cultivating mental self-awareness is
"all we have to do to be successful." You planted that notion and then
imagined you'd found it there. This is not something you do on purpose.
In the fog of your unconscious it replicates without your knowledge or
permission. It's the "let's twist what was said into nonsense and then ridicule
it" meme. In the abstract we might call it "ridiculization." But it's not abstract.
It's real. As real and alive as our species mind and its largely unconscious
individuations.
Your mind provides the ecology within which memes succeed or fail. This
one succeeds because it appeals to your desire to believe that what you
oppose is nonsensical. It appeals, not to logic, but to ego. Our job is to root
out these opportunistic, freelance memes. To be fully human is to determine
which memes are selected instead of letting them self-select in our dark,
dingy basement. The potential for freedom in the self-aware mind is
undermined by memes that specialize in exploiting our prejudices.
> I think the 'radical departure' argument is the
> mistake, because there is no precedent for it in any other part of nature.
What's radical about humans is that our existence as individuals is based on
our minds instead of our bodies. The cultural world we inhabit is a product of
our consciousness. We've generated a universe.
The emergence of mental self-existence from the hominid mind has two natural
precedents: the big bang and the origin of life. Rather than merely sharing
in universal existence, every organism is a little universe unto itself, with its
own existence. If the big bang unleashed universal self-existence, then
life is local self-existence, and humanity is mental self-existence.
> Evolution occurs slowly, gradually (with blips for major natural
> disasters and so on), what we do know about forerunners and close
> relatives of humans, like neanderthals, is that they were extremely well
> adapted to their ecological niches.
Evolution can proceed rapidly or slowly. Much of what we are arises
spontaneously, without reference to environment. (See Gould).
> <A radio signal has no need for consciousness, either at the point of
> transmission or reception. But life is habitual, not automatic...>
>
> What do you mean by habitual and habit?
Habit is based on memory. Automation is based on timeless, mathematical
principles. The difference between life and machine is memory and eternity.
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