Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA26757 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 25 Jan 2002 22:12:40 GMT Message-ID: <001901c1a5f4$d071b280$2503aace@oemcomputer> From: "Philip Jonkers" <philipjonkers@prodigy.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <AA-1A04C7B4EE944C7668FBC1D84F18EF95-ZZ@maillink1.prodigy.net> <00af01c1a479$ac039ac0$aa86b2d1@teddace> <01cc01c1a4b6$22e1a1a0$6621aace@oemcomputer> <007b01c1a5cf$dc9d6380$2cc2b3d1@teddace> Subject: Re: Abstractism Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 14:05:41 -0900 Organization: Prodigy Internet Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200 X-Mimeole: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2615.200 Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Ted:
> > > To be real a thing must exist whether or not we believe in it. An
> > > abstraction, by definition, is a product of consciousness. It cannot
> > > exist unless we imagine it-- precisely the opposite of the ontological
> > > criterion.
> > >
> > > If memes are abstractions, then we're just playing games here,
fiddling
> > > with words and imagining we've discovered something.
Philip:
> > Okay, bad sequence of words I admit. I should have stated:
> > The meme is an entity that would best be described abstractly.
Ted:
> An abstract description of memes would involve elements that are found
among
> all memes. It's no different than describing anything else. We can
> abstract the qualities of trees and thereby arrive at a general definition
> of trees. But if you want to describe a particular tree, you'll have to
> leave the abstractions behind. Same goes with memes.
Okay, I can see your objection. What I had in mind however was to abstractly
regard one meme which may reside in multiple hosts. Each host has somekind
of
neural representation of the meme which is highly non-unique as Derek
pointed
out. Moreover it is likely to be a function of time as well as you
constantly
update, modify and increase your knowledge database. With abstract
description
of one particular meme I meant a description captured in language
(or other mode of communication) which may be more or less the same in all
of the hosts at hand. Clearly, you can't do that (at least at this point in
science)
if you define a meme in terms of neural correlates and try to find a the
same
correlates in different meme-hosts.
So with abstract I mean a more protocol-like language representation of a
meme.
For instance my self-plex would include: male, 30 years old, post-doc
neuroscience, loves: programming and movies, loathes: religion and jealousy.
Admires: Bruce Lee, Robert DeNiro, Charles Darwin & Paul Dirac. etc.....
Instead of vague non-unique neural correlates.
Philip.
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