Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA07268 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Sun, 10 Feb 2002 22:02:08 GMT Message-ID: <003301c1b285$c9a7dae0$5e2ffea9@oemcomputer> From: "Philip Jonkers" <philipjonkers@prodigy.net> To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> References: <5.1.0.14.0.20020210120014.02c88260@pop.cogeco.ca> Subject: Re: Memes Meta-Memes and Politics 3 of 3 (1988, updates 2002) Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 13:53:40 -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
Keith:
> The inference engine was a milestone in our evolution. It works far
> more often than it fails. But as you can see from the example, the
> inference engines will wring blood from a stone; you can count on its
> finding causal relations whether they exist or not. Worse yet, the
> inference engine probably can't detect when it doesn't have enough data.
> Even if it could, it has no way to tell that to the verbal (conscious)
> self.
The human mind preferes to rationalize rather than to function rational.
It infers like there's no tomorrow. Constantly it is willing to make causal
connections between all kinds of things. Often such correlations are
superficial/incomplete or downright false. Take superstititions for example.
Any breed of pseudoscience, like astrology or tarot reading, is
based entirely on the deceptive byproduct of the human `inference engine'.
Philip.
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