Re: RE[2]: virus: Hosts

zaimoni@ksu.edu
Tue, 15 Oct 1996 00:20:28 -0500 (CDT)


On Sat, 12 Oct 1996, David Leeper wrote:

> KMO Prime,
>
> >On what basis do memes compete with one another? Human brains seem to
> >have finite storage capacity, so there would seem to be competition
> >between memes for this limited resource, but that would seem to pit all
> >memes against each other equally in a memetic free-for-all. That
> >doesn't seem to be the case. Some memes facilitate the propagation of
> >some memes and hinder the propagation of others, i.e. there seems to be
> >some memetic mechanisms which give rise to compatibility/incompatibility
> >relationships between memes, but I have no idea what those mechanisms
> >are.
>
> Here's my take on this:
> 1) The brain (as opposed to the mind) provides an environment in which genes exist.

Tentatively workable.

> 2) I believe the brain's environment has several eco-systems. Examples of these would be sex,
> logic and survival. An attempt to map these eco-systems is the Tree Of Life. (Please excuss the
> self-promotion, but an on-line description of the Tree of Life is at
> http://home1.gte.net/dleeper/Tree.html ).

I like this. Cf. Piaget on the relative development on the logic
subsystem [I prefer CIS].

> 3) Various memes can live in these different eco-systems. That these memes may be logically
> incompatable doesn't really matter. The purpose of meme is to survive and replicate, not to be
> logically. These different eco-systems limit the "free-for-all" you mentioned. Sexual memes
> and logical memes (for example) live in different eco-systems, they rarely compete (however, see
> [4]).
>
> 4) There would seem to be part of us that "sits apart" from all this, and makes decisions at a
> higher level. It decides how much of our resources go into the "sexual eco-system", the
> "logical eco-system", and so on. Perhaps a good term for this part of us would be a
> "meta-meme", its is a meme that influences which _types_ of memes are favored and which _types_
> are disfavored.

This meta-meme, as a primary effect, would generate conscious experience
when running?

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/ Kenneth Boyd
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