Date: Wed, 20 May 1998 18:07:02 +0000
From: Bruce Howlett <bhowlett@metz.une.edu.au>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Critical thinking in memetics
Aaron Lynch wrote:
> It is worth noting that their active opposition to pseudoscience
> has not stopped any of them from producing widely read science books. My
> own memetics book _Thought Contagion_, which contains no traces of
> pseudoscience, has made the Amazon.com and _New Scientist_ bestseller lists.
Aaron,
While your criticsm of the not so scientific writings of some
"scientists" is valid, I appreciate easy to read information about areas
of science in which I am interested but do not necessarily want to
specialise. I have been grateful, for example, to John Gribbin for
demistifying quantum mechanics. I would suggest that your book, being
about a social science has a much wider potential audience than quantum
mechanics. Also worth remembering is that a very small percentage of
the population is capable of critical thinking. Is the purpose of this
list to narrow down the possible number of participants in memetic
science to a select few? I would suggest that many list members are
feeling alienated by some of the sharp criticisms that result from posts
of late. I have been hesitant to mention some of my ideas for fear of
disection, or worse, being ignored. I think it would be a great help if
the "heavies" on this list lightened up a little.
Regards,
Bruce Howlett
===============================================================
This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit