From: "Richard Brodie" <richard@brodietech.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: RE: Unified perspective
Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 16:03:56 -0800
In-Reply-To: <19990120203950.AAA9961@[128.103.64.145]>
It's not that reductionism is WRONG, it's just that it's not always USEFUL.
Emergent systems become largely independent of the substrate from which they
emerge. I am excited by the interaction of the "software" of the mind --
memes -- with the "hardware" layer that is being called evolutionary
psychology. I see that all kinds of really interesting predictions can be
made from just that model, with no understanding whatsoever of how ideas are
stored neurologically. Now that in itself is a fascinating field, but not
necessary for working in memetics any more than an understanding of chip
electronics is necessary for designing a web page.
Wade Smith wrote:
>From one layman to another- sounds like the main point of 'Consilience',
>by E. O. Wilson. Not that such an approach ain't without its, um,
>naysayers... the usual poo-poo stridently denounces the specter of
>reductionism espoused....
Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/
Author, "Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme"
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/votm.htm
Free newsletter! Visit Meme Central at
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
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