virus: The Voice of One (was: Memetics: our obligations)

Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Sun, 29 Jun 1997 20:46:42 -0700 (PDT)


On Fri, 27 Jun 1997, Brett Lane Robertson wrote:

> Still, Darwinism also fails to account for the survival of the unique
> individual--in all his glorious imperfection. Meme theory should be
> comprehensive and should apply to the various forms of matter/mind not
> taken into account by survival of the fittest.

In a play Richard, KMO, Eva, Stephen and I saw (between sips of fine
cognac), one of the charactors, a physisist, offered the theory that the
work of an indiviual (as opposed to that of a group) has the intrinsic
qualities of the individual, has a personality if you will. And as such
is taken in and learned more readily by others. That we tend to identify
with the personality invoved and assimilate memes presented in that format
better than knowledge homoginized by a committee.

Perhaps this sheds light on the value of the "glorious imperfection" of
the individual in the evolution of meme distributing machines (us).

-Prof. Tim