Re: virus: Is the term "meme" necessary?

Tom Loeber (chiploeber@telis.org)
Tue, 14 May 1996 15:36:00 -0700 (PDT)


>*****Tom Loeber(May14,2:44am)
>What? Huh? Doesn't weight have a "scientific model" interpretation also? In
>fact, weight's scientific model includes multiple masses and gravity, a good
>deal more encompassing than just mass. "Mass" is a singular phenomenon.
>"Weight" is a relationship.
>*****
>
>Are you being deliberately dense? This is not an argument for the sake of
>arguement. Try a debating club.
>
ditto
>
>The concept of mass is more useful than weight exactly because mass is
>independent of context.
>
Maybe someday when most of humanity lives off planet mass may be used more
often but for now, "weight" takes the cake as being more useful than mass by
a long shot. Mass may be an intrinsic quality of all matter but further up
the scale of more comprehensive concepts, mass is but one intrinsic quality
of weight.
>
>It doesn't matter where in space you are, mass is
>conserved. This leads to such elegant solutions as:
>
>E=mc2 (That 2 should be superscript)
>
>Trying to define this same relationship between matter and energy, using
>weight, leads to a very complicated equation requiring more constants.
>
Right! Weight is a more weighty concept than mass! BTW, I prefer to think
of the general theory of relativity as E/M=C squared. Helps me to avoid the
mistake you just made "It doesn't matter where in space you are, mass is
conserved."
>
>Remember from physics? Mass is an intrinsic property, and thus it is a more
>versitile concept. Sure, everthing could be done with weight; you could also
>avoid ever reducing fractions: 57/114ths. But 1/2 is so much more elegant.
>
Ah, you've discovered my weakness. I never reduce my fractions. How did
you know? Does the theology of memes give one special powers of mind
reading? Boy, maybe I am missing out. Thanks for pointing out the obvious.
Maybe we all should go back to grade school.
>
>You, yourself have been insisting on clarity. That is what "mass" and "memes"
>provide: clarity of thought.
>
Spoken like a true believer. I think "mess" and "mames" would be just as
logically clarifying separate from the context of their usage as you
demonstrate.