Re: virus: Re: Sling Blade

Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@calweb.com)
Sat, 5 Apr 1997 00:31:31 -0800 (PST)


> Lee wrote:
> >And "rational ideas", i.e., those that more closely
> >represent objective reality than their alleles, have a higher copying
> >fidelity than irrational ones, because reality itself can be used for
> >error-correction.
>
> If you think about it, you may come to see that it is more like
> "simplistic ideas" or "intuitively pleasing" ideas than "rational" or
> "real" memes that are better at propagating.

"Simplistic" is usually a pejoritive with no content, contending
that it is somehow rational to criticize a concept based on its
superficial qualities like simplicity rather than its rational
merit. "Intuitive" is just a shorthand for "matching some genetic
predispostion or early childhood prejudice."

One cannot deny that there are successful memetic replicators that
resonate with some genetic predispostion or prejudice to their
benefit at our expense. But in the long run, even they are subject
to copying error because the predispositions themselves are mutating.
In the very long run, only those memes that represent verifiable
reality maintain their fidelity. The only way around that conclusion
is to deny the primacy of existence over conscousness itself, which
I won't do--for the moment.

--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com>  <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC