From: "Tim Rhodes" <proftim@speakeasy.org>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: Dawkins' Mutation Test for Replicators
Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 11:01:24 -0700
Dearest Chris,
I went through your 'template', but I hit a snag early on:
>(1) We have adapted to our environment by internalising information
>processing characteristics.
>(2) These characteristics include the development of sets of specialised
>sensory systems where in humans thee is a strong emphasis on audition and
>vision.
>(3) These sensory systems share neural networks 'in here' and from this has
>emerged an abstract categorisation system based on the 'what'/'where'
>dichotomy aka the distinction of objects from relationships.
>(differentiation of the senses in infants determines the degree of
>seperation of vision from audition. Synesthesia is common in infants but
>rare in adults).
I've done quite a bit of reading on Synesthesia and have never seen anything
to indicate that it is "common" in infants. Where are you getting that
from? Could you cite your source?
And on a related point, I also noticed your reading list covered the well
worn and over-rated right/left brain dichotomy, but was sparse on the (much
more profound) limbic/neo-cortex dichotomy. Why exactly is that?
Your list also neglected Lakoff and Johnson's work [1], which takes many of
the ideas you're toying with and fleshes them out, applying them where
applicable and suggesting others where they are not. You should read
them -- they paint with a much finer brush than you, and hence gain mastery
over the details in a manner so much better than what you have show here.
In ignorance and with an obvious profound lack of understanding-
-Tim
[1] George Lakoff and Mark Johnson "Metaphors we Live by" (1980 University
of Chicago press, paperback) and "Philosophy in the Flesh" (1999 Basic
Books, hardback).
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