Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id MAA02106 (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 12:41:28 GMT X-Originating-IP: [194.117.133.84] From: "Steve Drew" <srdrew_1@hotmail.com> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: Apoptosis Date: Sat, 09 Feb 2002 12:35:51 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: <F17ErjCrU1YImWd1Go700007793@hotmail.com> X-OriginalArrivalTime: 09 Feb 2002 12:35:52.0132 (UTC) FILETIME=[4F7AE840:01C1B166] Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
>Date: Fri, 08 Feb 2002 19:13:49 -0800
From: "Grant Callaghan" <grantc4@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Apoptosis
>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<
Yes.
It is also part of why i suspect we have less actual choice in some of the
memes we adopt, as they tend to be ones that complement those that we
already carry in most instances.
I think that science in some respects is a special case. I say this because
to my way of thinking, science is the only world view that adapts as our
discoveries about the world increase - as each more accurate or usefull
depiction emerges. Other views are not concerned with acurate
representations of the world. eg. religion. another would be fashion, which
is solely concerned with change, but does influence many peoples views.
I read somewhere that the flat earth was one of those urban myths. Ptolemy
and other thinkers of the time were aware the earth was round. Some Greek
did an experiment using equal length sticks, and measured the shadow of each
at the same time of day, on the same day, but at different lattitudes and
got the result that shadows nearer the equator were shorter. As you would in
a world that was round. Wasn’t the flat earth a metaphor for the Churches
supresion of knowledge during the dark ages?
Regards
Steve
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