Re: virus: Random thoughts & more poor analogies!

Robert Moritz (robertmoritz@earthlink.net)
Sun, 16 Aug 1998 14:16:44 -0500


Bob Hartwig wrote:
>
> At 09:04 PM 8/15/98 -0700, you wrote:
> >Bob Hartwig wrote:
> >
> ><<Continuing on the speciation analogy, I wonder if there is a danger of
> >memetic inbreeding? Are the Amish the end result of memetic inbreeding?
> >Comments?>>
> >
> >Academics are the end result of memetic inbreeding.
> >
>
> When I think of an academic, I don't think of someone who's especially
> lacking in memetic diversity. Do you? If so, could you expound?

I dont really feel that an academic is, by definition, lacking in
memetic diversity(though in many individuals this is the case). Nor do
i feel that academics is neccessarily memetic inbreeding. The only way
i can describe it(yes, another poor analogy :) is like a painting. Each
brush stroke being a single meme, and the picture it creates being the
experimentally tested scientific model for reality in that subject. Of
course, maybe im just shying away from the term "inbreeding" because it
reminds me of that movie deliverance.

Robert