From: "Chris Lofting" <ddiamond@ozemail.com.au>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: Dichotomisations (e.g. vertical/horizontal, Astrology et al)
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 19:23:38 +1000
Aaron's website has the following entry:
"Brief Example: Consider the belief that you need to find a romantic partner
of a "compatible" astrological sign. This notion causes singles who have it
to raise the subject of astrological sign compatibility with each new
potential partner, in order to determine compatibility. So the idea exploits
human mating drives to get itself retransmitted. It is a "sexually
transmitted belief," implicitly telling some hosts to send, in effect, 4 or
12 copies of this idea to potential partners before accepting anyone for
further dating. That includes people who are manipulated to retransmit even
if spreading the word is not their specific motive for doing so. Resembling
a paperless chain letter in some ways, the thought contagion also behaves in
humans much as a computer virus behaves in computers. Though it does not
erase its hosts’ memory, it can make it harder to find a partner deemed
"compatible" by arbitrarily narrowing the field. So like a sexually
transmitted microorganism, astrology ideas parasitize human mating for their
own reproduction. This is not all that the new theory has to say about
astrology, and astrology is not a special case. Similar analyses shed fresh
light on a vast range of ancient religions and recent ideologies."
The meaning of Astrology signs etc etc are founded on recursive use of
dichotomisations (e.g. earth/air, fire/water) and it is the emotional
patterns that are linked to this process that *resonate* with meaning. As
long as I structure ANYTHING using object/relationship distinctions and
1:many dichotomisations so I can elicit a belief in that ANYTHING as being
'meaningful'. The words are 'free will', the emotion patterns are the
deterministic element but at a general level so that we can communicate 'in
general'. Particularisations act to differentiate one dichotomy-sourced
discipline to another but the underlying template, the part that resonates
when we use analogy/metaphor is common to members of the species (and to
other species but not so refined as in us).
For mathematics we can see the source of numbers:
Representations of wholes -- whole numbers
Representations of parts -- rational numbers (harmonic series)
Representations of static relationships -- irrational numbers (invarience)
Representations of dynamic relationships -- imaginary numbers (transition
markers)
Add +/- (aka foreground/background, text/context etc etc) and you have a set
of fundamentals that we can then use to *represent* the emotion-based
invarient patterns used in dichotomisations. We can then combine these
'fundamentals' into more complex (!) forms.
In meaning all that is 'communicated' is a wave pattern that sets off a
resonance in the pool of emotion we all share. Note that superpositions
allow us to transfer 'hidden' data.
It is the template of emotion-based patterns that create the resonance and
so the taking of things literally; we fail to differentiate word/symbol from
the emotional pattern, we fail to see the process of metaphorcation.
What is interesting about this is that once you get a pattern it seems that
it cannot be removed. The source of 'junk' DNA?
In general, it is not the Astrology/whatever that causes 'problems' it is
the object/relationship patterns and so you can 'give up' on Astrology and
find something else and get the SAME problems since that 'somethingelse'
causes the SAME resonance in the pool of emotions.
best,
Chris Lofting
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~ddiamond
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