From: <levy@Oswego.EDU>
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 16:37:10 -0500 (EST)
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: The Memetics of the Army - a logical proof
In-Reply-To: <199803250902.JAA06318@alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk>
Someone I spoke to had an idea that children are conscripted to the army
at an early age (18 in the US) because younger kids are more easily
programmable to be submissive. Now my hunch is that we don't need to be
programmed to be submissive because we are naturally submissive.
Nevertheless some sort of "brainwashing" techniques go on.
If memetics enters the picture, it is possible to understand how the time
tested techniques of brainwashing actually manifest. Number two, it is
then possible to set up an accepted public standard for understanding the
process. Those who understand such processes and do not wish to allow
such blatent programming for personal reasons will opt not to engage in
such training. This may even result in analyses of the situations that
result from this organized memetic engineering. It may even result in
same sorts of discontent that erupt into revolutions when people are
sparked by more tangible issues.
Therefore a science of memetics (with the specification implied above)
makes the human reality more tangible, bringing intellectually inspired
revolutions down to the vernacular mode of discourse.
I tend to view this as a part of the larger trend of "externalization of
the internal". Other examples are artificial intelligence and virtual
reality.
Rob
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"The universe has a habit of deleting anachronisms."
-P K Dick
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