Re: virus: playing safe with supernaturalism

JakePrime@aol.com
Fri, 12 Jun 1998 15:54:57 EDT


In a message dated 98-06-12 14:59:57 EDT, you write:

<< Although a thousand years is certainly a blink of an eye when compared to
biological evolution. Memes evolve and are transmitted much faster than
genes. (maybe 1 day vs. 20 years = 7300x as fast). This puts religion at a
genetic age of over 10 million years (rough rough guess). Which is more
significant.

-Paul Prestopnik >>

This is interesting. And perhaps I am speaking a little more proselytically.
I think before we start trying to claim 10 million years of "genetic time" for
our species, that we should get a more secure place in this biosphere for our
current legacy. For all we know we could be heading down a dead end. An
immense partial catastrophe (one that doesn't wipe out the species), could
wipe out most of our cultural artifacts. Additionally, some of the most
virulent memes at work in the world threaten to "simplify" western culture to
an extent many of us here would view as suspended animation if not extinction.

Would "genetic time" be faster yet than atomic time? Could you be talking
about rate of change instead of just rate of transmission? This is an
interesting distinction that you make, but I am skeptical to treat memetic
time, genetic time, and actual time as distinct. To us it seems like a lot of
time, because it is important to us. But evolution is full of dead ends that
in retrospect do not seem relatively important to anyone today accept a few
researchers that discover them.

Mind you I don't see the cockroaches getting the upper hand here, but I still
think the "blink of an eye" perspective is still more valid, particularly if
we wish to envision something considerably longer than that blink.

-Jake