Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id WAA07400 (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 22:38:04 GMT Message-ID: <003b01c1b28a$cd734880$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 14:29:35 -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:
> There are other defenses against the uncritical acceptance of
> potentially dangerous memes. Most common is the trait of rejecting all
> newfangled ideas, where "newfangled" is usually defined as any to which
> one has not been exposed before puberty. Societies have similar defenses
> against new ideas. There are also powerful meta-memes, that is, memes
> used to judge other memes. Of these, the scientific method is perhaps
> the most effective. Logic is another system by which memes can be
> tested, at least for consistency.
Saying that logic is different from the scientific method is like saying
that
math and physics are separable. The former is used by the latter.
> With respect to the USSR, trade and tolerance are both at a low level.
> Historically trade was a much smaller part of the economy during the time
> the rest of Europe was undergoing the Renaissance. The recent attempts
> to introduce tolerance to other modes of economic systems in the USSR
> have more than a superficial similarity to the Catholic church finally
> deciding to live with the Protestants. A modern-day Renaissance in the
> USSR may be based on the free exchange of information through computers
> and free(r) trade.
>
> [Remember I wrote this in 19881]
So you went back to the future with this huh?
> The development of memetics provides improved mental tools (models)
> for thinking about the influences, be they benign, silly, or fatal, that
> replicating information patterns have on all of us. Here is a source of
> danger if memetics comes of age and only a few learn to create meme sets
> of great influence. Here too is liberation for those who can recognize
> and analyze the memes to which they are exposed. If "the meme about
> memes" infects enough people, rational social movements might become more
> common.
Nice article I like it...
Philip.
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