Re: virus: Rationality

Alex Williams (thantos@decatl.alf.dec.com)
Sat, 1 Mar 1997 14:14:16 -0500 (EST)


> Can't you see that is what we (and information theorists and
> evolutionary biologists) mean by "transmission"? I guess if you
> don't like the word, there is nothing I can do about it. But the
> onus is on you to supply a better one.

I guess its just myself (and the tattered remnants of the Zanderian
Heresy) that want a certain accuracy in terminology when it comes to
this particular subset of the memetic lexicon. I have no problem with
"communication" as the organic term, because it implies that there is
more behind-the-scenes things going on.

> Like it or not, that is where we are at in memetic theory. Like in
> Mendel's days, we recognize the there is a pattern without understanding
> the underlying mechanisms.

I suppose I'm ahead of the tech curve in putting forth the possibility
that the signal is the part of the pattern responsible for
errors/variants of this limited nature. Maybe I'm an unbelievable
egoist, to put Rottie and Brodie to shame, but I like to fancy that
I'm making some headway in at least tackling and understanding the
form if not the function of the mechanisms.