Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA17426 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 22 Jan 2002 22:53:11 GMT X-Originating-IP: [194.117.133.84] From: "Steve Drew" <srdrew_1@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Grant's theory of Everything Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 22:48:53 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F160Hy3SpwBGpEI2rV40001d58b@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 22 Jan 2002 22:48:53.0101 (UTC) FILETIME=[F735E1D0:01C1A396] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
I only state here what I believe. I don't expect everyone else to
believe
it, too. I wrote an open letter to Susan explaining my view and why it
was
different from hers. I doubt she ever saw it, but several other members
of
this forum have come forth to take her side of the arguement.
My view is based on the idea that memes are chosen by people for their
useability rather than the people being chosen by the memes. I see
memes as
the tools we use to build our culture and hold our society together.
What
memes we choose and discard (or let fall by the wayside) is a function
of
how well they enable us to do the job we are attempting to do. If I
want a
woman to marry me, there is a collection of courtship memes I can draw
upon
to help me convince her.
The memes I choose will depend on my impressions of her and what I think
will apeal to her. If my choices are wrong, I lose and I'm not likely
to
make the same choices again. If she accepts me, my choices have been
proven
correct and I am likely to tell everyone else who faces the same problem
what worked for me. That perpetuates the successful memes and spreads
them
among the people I communicate with.
That's the process as I see it working. There may be more to it than
what I
see, as there is more to just about everything than what I see. I don't
think I'm alone in that. Other views may be more useful than my own,
but I
haven't been able to incorporate them into my particular world view yet.
I'm still working on my "Theory of Everything."
Grant ;-)>
I find i agree with a lot that you have said, and that we do have many
choices in the memes we accept. Where i disagree is that we have been
exposed to various memes throughout our lives that we do not neccesarily
question without a great deal of thought, and that many people either do not
do , will not do it or cannot do it. Hence they accept memes that are close
to the one they posses without hte scrutiny that they should deserve, and
act accordingly. eg. If i said to you that Hitler was not that bad a bloke,
you would likely not agree! (and evryone else hopefully!) :-). But for
some reason in the 1930's a lot did. And if they didn't they at least kept
stum. This is what i mean by the idea that memetic acceptance/ rejection is
one of a spectrum rather than a simple filter that we chose to interpret the
world in terms of our 'wants'.
Both yourself and Philip are at least attempting to to narrow the field a
bit and good luck to you both for trying.
As i say i see a spectrum.
Look forward to your comments,
Steve.
Ps for Francesca,. I only started reading this in Nov 2001 and i'm
struggling to keep up.
Any one got any tips? (yes i do speed read)
____________
_________________________________________________________________
Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jan 22 2002 - 23:01:02 GMT