Date: Wed, 9 Jun 1999 18:06:36 +0100 (BST)
From: Rob Clewley <Rob.Clewley@bristol.ac.uk>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Spirits in The Material World
In-Reply-To: <v03110701b383d4700147@[206.14.186.128]>
On Wed, 9 Jun 1999, Rich & Linda Speel wrote:
> I have another area of discussion I would like to broach concerning memes.
> What do you all think that psychedelic substances, like peyote or
> mushrooms, play in understanding memes or creating new ones? Is there a
> root behavior that humans possess without cultural conditioning or genetic
> changes?
>
I think evolutionary psychology supports this very strongly. I know
there is a lot in this field but I know Barkow, Cosmides and Tooby
edited a pretty good (but somewhat behind the times now I expect) book
called The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of
Culture which you might find interesting, although the role of
psychedelic substances in the discovery of such innate behaviours
didn't get much of a mention :)
There's probably more reliable (and, unfortunately, more legal)
techniques to determine what are our innate behaviours, since I thought
drugs only mix up your reality with fantasy (since obviously I've never
tried any), but that your fantasies are already heavily laden with
culturally-influenced content.
As for this...
> I hope this list seriously supports a sense of humor.
>
Hmmm, are you kidding?
Rob.
===============================================================
Rob.Clewley@bristol.ac.uk
Applied Nonlinear Mathematics, and Neural Computing Groups,
Dept. of Engineering Maths, University of Bristol,
Queen's Building, University Walk, Bristol
BS8 1TR, United Kingdom.
( Tel) (+44) (0)117 928 9798
( Fax ) (+44) (0)117 925 1154
http://zeus.bris.ac.uk/~enrhc/rhc.html
"Just because you're paranoid don't mean they're not after you"
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