Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id CAA27502 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 8 Feb 2002 02:05:11 GMT Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 17:59:33 -0800 Message-Id: <200202080159.g181xXa25882@mail13.bigmailbox.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary X-Mailer: MIME-tools 4.104 (Entity 4.116) X-Originating-Ip: [66.156.194.191] From: "Joe Dees" <joedees@addall.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: RE: Fw: Fw: sex and the single meme Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk('binary' encoding is not supported, stored as-is)
> "Philip Jonkers" <philipjonkers@prodigy.net> <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Fw: Fw: sex and the single memeDate: Thu, 7 Feb 2002 07:29:13 -0900
>Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>
>
>> Wade:
>> > >Of course, much of human development is considered to be things we've
>had
>> > >to do because we _don't_ rely upon instinct....
>> Joe:
>> > Or because our instinct is generic, rather than specific, like our
>> ability to master one or more languages in general, without there being a
>> specific one that our instinct entails that we be imprinted with.
>>
>> That property smells after intelligence rather than instinct I'd say.
There are studies of a group of children who grew up in the Caribbean who were not taught a language but who developed their own, complete with syntax. Of course feral loners did not do so, for lack of interlocuters. But this leads me to seriously consider the predisposition towards language-ing in the presence of the necessary and sufficient conditions (others) during a critical period to be a hard-wired ground characteristic of our cerebral architecture. whether you would call this an instinct or not is another question. Critical periods are involved in vision; if a kitten has its eyes covered so that it cannot detect light during a critical period, it will never behaviorally react to it, although the iris will contract when exposed; if instead, the kitten's eyes are covered with halved ping-pong balls, creating a Ganz Field that let in light, but not line distinctions, the kitten will not subsequently react to lines although it will to light. This critical period nec!
essarily requiring exposure to facilitating conditions for vision seems pretty close to the sine qua non for language-ing.
>> I consider instinct to be synonymous to animal-like or preprogrammed
>> behavior, such as termites making mounds, spiders making webs, etc.
>> Humans distinct themselves from animals by having intelligence and
>> consciousness. These faculties gave humans the edge to dominate the world.
>> The species endowed with both faculties were rendered so powerful that
>> nature left only one niche for it to occupy. Rivalling species, such as
>> neanderthal, were driven
>> into extinction as a consequence.
>>
>> The owner of intelligence is put into a position to reason
>> why things are the way they are. In between intelligence and instinct lies
>> intuition.
>> A vague underdeveloped form of intelligence leading to incomplete and
>> immature
>> consciousness. When you only have a hunch, a clue, or a feeling that
>> something may be the way it smells you, by definition, are unable to
>specify
>> the reason why. As such it is inferior to intelligence which do put you on
>> stirdier soil.
>> As such, the slogan `female intuition', one which some women are proud to
>> propagandize, triggers a mere laughing response in me...
>>
>> Philip.
>>
>> ps. No offense to the females on the list of course as I do hold them
>> in high esteem...
>>
>>
>
>
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>This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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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
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