Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA17986 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 23 Jan 2002 03:07:06 GMT Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20020122215149.035271f0@pop.cogeco.ca> X-Sender: hkhenson@pop.cogeco.ca X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 22:04:40 -0500 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Keith Henson <hkhenson@cogeco.ca> Subject: Re: necessity of mental memes In-Reply-To: <F75408Oh1pMuBeZVo2d0001d155@hotmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
At 08:47 PM 22/01/02 +0000, "Steve Drew" <srdrew_1@hotmail.com>
wrote:
snip
>I was under the impression that the level of choice in accepting or
>rejecting memes is one of the things that is still very much undeceided.
>Although i agree that contagion and virus are emotionally charged, i am
>hard pressed to think of something that could replace them. For me memes
>and acceptance/ rejection run through a range from choice to no choice,
>and the ability of various people to accept/reject varies th same. For the
>no choice my idea is that the meme in question may fit with your own
>collection of memes very closely that you accept them without the
>necessary scrutiny that something that conflicted with them would command.
Right. If I hear about some idea in science which fits right in with the
rest of science it will rapidly become part of my set of memes. As an
example, I had no problem with the presentation a few years ago that
stomach ulcers were caused by a bacteria and years before that about plate
tectonics. I have a vivid memory though of a quite senior scientist who
flew into a rage about an article on the topic in Scientific American.
>if i understand Susan Blackmore's book correctly, then she believes we
>have no choice whatsoever.
Susan is *technically* right on this point. It is the direct consequence
of the fact that everything is either directly caused by something else or
the result of a random event.
So you can look back and state with confidence that everything that
happened including any memes you picked up were either caused or
random. You can even say that the future is the same way. But it makes no
difference in the operation sense because you will always feel you have choice.
Keith Henson
===============================================================
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 : Wed Jan 23 2002 - 03:15:00 GMT