Re: virus: Rationality

Tony Hindle (t.hindle@joney.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 27 Feb 1997 15:33:44 +0000


I wrote
>> Although today science models that the earth goes round the
>> sun and has done for millions or years, it did not always have this
>> usefull model (meme). The most evolved meme-complex in pre-
>> copernican days lacked this meme. In western science this meme has
>> reached fixation to the extent that it is "part of discovered
>> reality".
>
Drakir replied
>Hmmm ... interesting point. Do you think that when something becomes
>a "part of discovered reality" is ceases to be a meme?

No. I think that when the model (meme-complex) explains
observations and can make correct predictions as elegantly as the
heliocentric meme, we all forget it is just a model and we call it
reality.
In this sense we only ever model reality with memes.
Science creates memes that I believe will eventually spread better
than any other memes (I am an optimist) because they can be used to
make correct predictions about the world.

Tony Hindle.
Reality is an illusion created by our senses.