Message-Id: <199711190237.UAA06013@dns.night.net>
Subject: Re: On uplifting
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 97 20:37:05 -0600
From: Mark Mills <mmmills@onramp.net>
To: "memetics list" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
>A literary theorist who has followed the progress of cognitive science
>(and whose name and books I forget) proposes that our memory operates in
>terms of literature -we remember a story, the detail of which are
>'hyperlinked' to other skills and knowledges.
I suspect this story generating feature can be likened to an organ of the
brain. Earlier in this list, someone mentioned the idea of a LAD or
language acquisition devise. Another 'devise' would be the 'story
engine.' The story engine would be like a mental uncompression engine to
use computer vocabulary. It takes limited stimuli and uncompresses a
'story' from the raw experience. Stories always make more of a situation
than the 'facts' provide.
It is easy to see how a 'story engine' would evolve. Additionally, it is
easy to see how we would use 'stories' that ignore the story engine.
>Consciousness, under this perview, is paying attention to what you're
>doing --each tool, each story, each social exchange is important...
I'd simply say 'consciousness is a story.' It might be a unique and
useful one, but it is just a construct our 'story engine' creates to make
sense of our sensory experiences.
Mark
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