Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id DAA01167 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sat, 9 Feb 2002 03:19:31 GMT X-Originating-IP: [137.110.248.206] From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Apoptosis Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2002 19:13:49 -0800 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <LAW2-F5VqKwRPQIWDO3000053b9@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 09 Feb 2002 03:13:50.0398 (UTC) FILETIME=[CBC2A5E0:01C1B117] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>I dont think it is memes that have a point of view. I think that the
>combination of memes each of us has influences the way we see the world to 
>a
>certain extent, and that as the memes we have change over time, so too can
>the way we look atthe world
>
>
>Regards
>
>Steve
>
I like this viewpoint, Steve, and agree completely.  The evidence for it 
lies in how what we believe influences what we see and what we call things 
influences how we remember them and react to the emotionally.  In other 
words, our memes do influence our perceptions and as we adopt new ones, our 
perceptions change.
Isn't that what science is all about?  We once saw the world as a flat place 
where the sun was driven like a chariot across the sky.  Then, when the meme 
for a round earth took over, we perceived the sun going around the earth.  
It took another revelation and a battle of memes before we learned to see 
that the earth revolved around the sun.  What we see when we look up in the 
sky every day hasn't changed.  New memes and new information has changed how 
we process what we see.  How we work it into our map of the universe.  That 
whole map is composed of memes.
Now our map is changing on a daily basis and so do our perceptions.  I've 
seen posts that imply people believe we may live in a world like the one 
depicted in The Matrix.  Other people are saying we are on the verge of 
living hundres or thousands of years.  The planets that once represented 
gods in the sky are now seen as new worlds to conquer and live on.  And the 
spread of those memes that change our perceptions fly around the world at 
the speed of light.  So it's not just a tribe here and another there that 
has its perceptions changed by new ideas and new visions of reality, but the 
entire population of the earth, often in a single day -- as on the day when 
men walked upon the moon.  The memes were there first, but television made 
it real and immediate.
Watching it happen wiped out most of the competing ideas about the moon 
similtaneously all over the world.  Of course, there is still a lunatic 
fringe who believe it never happened, but for the most part, people now 
really believe we can walk on any planet in our solar system.  That makes 
them see the planets in a new light, and that light comes from within us.
Grant
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