Re: virus: Rationality

jonesr@gatwick.geco-prakla.slb.com
Mon, 24 Feb 97 11:20:56 GMT


Alex Williams wrote:

> [Drakir wrote:]
> > Memes are little snippets of information, etc, which we use as an operating
> > base for the way we act and react, right? Well, I was thinking (whirr-click):
> > Is ones rationale, and Logic a meme? Can one be infected by rationality,
> > or does rationality control the memesphere (or vice versa)? Is rationality
> > built in, or is it learned?
>
> Memes are not /just/ little packets of information; think of your
> memesphere as a `primal soup' of memes, some of which have greater
> complexity than others, some of which are active enough that they
> `reach out' of the primal soup and affect the world beyond (your
> head).

Is this the transmission and replication of memes, or are you talking about how
they affect your actions?

> Some of the memes simply exist to be refered to by other
> memes, or incorporated into larger meme structures that begin
> functioning as a meme in their own rights just as organisms evolved
> from the sea into more complex arrangements of chemicals.

So if we model memes as atoms then they build molecules, which build
cells which build creatures? Does this necessarily mean, though, that
rationality, which is more a system of coherent thought, than a
packet or sytem of information can be classed as a meme?

Surely rationality is a method of interpreting memes than the actual
memes themselves.

I must point out that at the moment I'm more inclined towards the idea
that rationality and logic are /not/ memes, but I wouldn't be asking
if I were at all sure :)

> The very basic /idea/ of rationality, in addition, can be used as a
> descriptive term to describe a certain functioning pattern of memetic
> interaction in a given memesphere.

I agree with this, but I don't see that this necessitates a rationality meme.

I've just realised that this is far more complex than I originally thought.
Bugger.

Drakir