From: "Chris Lofting" <ddiamond@ozemail.com.au>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Dawkins' Mutation Test for Replicators
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 06:43:40 +1000
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Date: Monday, 30 August 1999 2:10
Subject: Re: Dawkins' Mutation Test for Replicators
>Dear Chris,
>
>> Whether or not the 100 monkeys is fraud or not the *pattern* is part of
our
>> method of analysis
>
>I'm not sure what you are referring to. Would you please explain this
pattern in general terms, without reference to the monkeys?
>
There is a pattern of 'understanding' that is based on methods of
communication that are outside of the norm. This pattern deals with 'purity'
in that, for example, identical twins can communicate in unusual ways due to
their having the same genetic makeup, they correlate at 100% ( or close to).
It is as if there is one person in two places at the same time and this
implies a 'link' of some sort regardless of the distance of seperation.
The emphasis is on 'sameness' and at the micro level we have the same
pattern in that all photons or electrons etc are 'the same' and with this
interpretation comes concepts such as the EPR paradox where correlated
particles are supposed to be linked regardless of where they are in the
universe (same concept is applied to identical twins).
Neurologically there is part of us that is 'object' oriented and at the
behavioral end this object orientation is linked to concepts such as
fundamentalism, the miraculous, 'us vs them' and so an emphasis on purity
etc etc
This 'purity' concept, when applied to genes comes in the form of a link
from an individual to immediate family and from there to distant family and
so out into the species; you need a 1/1 correlation to achieve 'perfect'
communication and so all of this type of communication (if it exists) would
drop off at a high rate (1/2^n) the further away you are from the 'pure'
state. (you could test this using crystals....)
If my ancient history is correct, the Egyptian kings would marry family
(their sisters?) for there was supposed to be a psychic link in doing this
(the whole concept of blue blood comes from this -- to preserve the purity
of the group). There was a price of course, increase in 'anomolies' in the
offspring.
Regardless of the truth or falsity in this, this pattern is very strong in
all cultures suggesting that it is a species linked pattern and as such,
given the chance, we will 'see' this pattern 'out there'.
There has been some discussion of testing all of this on the Quantum Mind
list and a paper has already appears in Physics Letters outlining the
proposed experiment using identical twins. Interstingly a previous
experiment 'suggested' possible linkage but also suggested that of all pairs
of identical twins only 25% of the pairs actually showed anything suggesting
'correlation', this goes along with the Dominant/Recessive format of
DD : Dr : rD : rr -- which is a level 2 dichotomisation of of the D/r
dichotomy. The rr group being those who 'suggested' some sort of link.
There is a lot of work required to flesh all of this out and dichotomisation
is behind it all in that the method contains patterns that could lead to the
interpretation of there being some sort of 'link' in 'pure' forms..
In the 100 monkeys so a critical genetic correlation was reached that
allowed the monkeys on the other islands to 'suddenly' become aware of the
washing process; this suddeness in the form of a resonance, no explicit link
just a sudden 'idea'. As you can see this can get into some 'interesting'
thinking about memetics etc the point is that regardless of the truth or
falshood of the story, these sorts of stories are part of 'us' and we need
to understand what is going on and what is the benefit of their continued
existance.
best,
Chris.
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