Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id UAA23497 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 24 Jan 2002 20:30:32 GMT X-Originating-IP: [194.117.133.84] From: "Steve Drew" <srdrew_1@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Grants theory of everything Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 20:26:14 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F70vGSQb0SulnJ2IKkV0001f566@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 24 Jan 2002 20:26:15.0139 (UTC) FILETIME=[5F180330:01C1A515] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Philip wrote
About the the freedom we have in chosen memes we like: you should not
forget that memes shape who we are. Ideas and ideologies we adopt are in
resonance with memes we already adopted. Memes code the brain, and in a
way the metaphore memes selecting memes is not so bad.
I think the actual freedom one has in chosing between one meme or
another is not that big. Emotions play a crucial role in the selection
process but
emotions in turn are steered by thoughts, ideas, notions, opinions each
of
which is memetic also.
and
I believe the answer lies somewhere in the middle of a
abstract pure free will and will imposed by already acquired memes. An
unpredicatable
factor
may be the type of emotion or mood the host has at time of potential
adoption. By the
the complexity of the human body mood is untractable as it is but by
being
also a
function of the environment (other humans) it makes it even more
unpredicatable.
I don't know how this unpredictability extends to average behavior
though.
Philip.
and Joe wrote
It is a matter of creative co-evolution; our prior memes strongly
influence but do not absolutely dictate those we will subsequently
accept, and our choices constrain but do not absolutely delineate the
future meme to which we may choose to be open (or not). Freedom is not
absolute, but neither is it absent.
Thanks, this is the point i was trying (not very well perhaps) to make. I
don't (can"t?) subscribe to the view that we are automata pre programmed to
react. That is why i said that we should be looking at some form of
continuum between the two. This means that, although i accept that we are
influenced by genetic (eg, the desire to mate) and memetics (choosing the
mate), i believe (?) thta we are more than just the product of the two, and
this is where my interest lies.
I've looked at the quantum probabilities arguments for freedom before, but
have not been able to get past the problem of when probability is the order
of the day at the particle level to the (apparent?) non probablilty such as
Boyles law mentioned earlier. Ie the microcosm to the macrocosm
Richard Feynman discussed the idea that in a closed sub atomic system, an
ideal one, that it would not be possible to tell which was the direction in
which the interaction took place. ie one could view two snapshot and not be
able to tell whether it came from before or after the interaction. Yet we
percieve before and aftre all the time. So i'm not too sure if comparing
memetics, free will and QM is very fruitful ,as the physicist have their own
problems which need solving.
Steve
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