Re: virus: Extrocranial Memes

sodom (Sodom@ma.ultranet.com)
Mon, 10 Aug 1998 12:11:02 -0400


C'mon now Tim, Its a little better than that, It would be like charting the
route of the paperboy, if he had to ride his bike by everything in the
newspaper too. It might lack specific news, but you would know where all the
news took place! I would think that it could have an effect on how we view
memes. A lot of what we discuss requires long term retention of a meme for it
to be spread - Understanding how the meme is stored, where it is stored, and
the effects it has on the brain at a physiological level is important to our
understanding.

Ill use my favorite subject - religion. fMRI shows activity in a particular
area of the brain when people are thinking about or feeling religious. People
like myself, who have no sense of "spirituality" possibly will never have this
part of my brain active in the same way. Does this part of the brain cause the
release of neurochemicals that effect the retention of the meme? or in my case
deter retention of the meme? I have no idea, but I bet the fMRI will help to
answer these.

Sodom
Bill Roh

Tim Rhodes wrote:

> Wade wrote:
>
> >If I declare that memes are the base activity of the brain
> >during non-autonomous behavior, and also devise a technique to study this
> >assertion, [....]
>
> I'm interested in this technique you allude to. I know you're not talking
> about fMRI, since that only registers blood flow to a region. After all,
> looking for a meme (or any thought) with fMRI would be akin to charting the
> route of your paperboy in an attempt to learn the news.
>
> -Prof. Tim