> On a related note, I've been researching the notion of truth (prompted
> by the recent great "objective truth" vs. the postmoderns thread) and
> I'm beginning to think the only things (i.e. category of propositions)
> we can know are true are conditionals.
This is part of a long arguement I've had going with you since my first
day on the list. Not only is Truth conditional, but in our post modern
world-- it is provisional.
Every time we say "I think X is
> true." we should translate that to mean "IF my assumptions are correct
> THEN X is true."
And X is true until something better comes along.
Sounds fickle? Sure, but we have our last fifty years of culture
recorded and filmed and video taped-- it's not going away-- it's not
fading from memory or being mythified. It *is* making all of us very
sarcastic and very fluent in the fine art of irony.
And of course we can never know with certainty whether
> our assumptions are true, but we can apply the same transformation
> to each one along the lines of "IF an objective reality exists AND my
> sense perceptions are correlated with said reality AND etc. etc. THEN
> my <insert premise here> is true." Does this fit in with your notion
> of beliefs and knowledge?
>
> >Many signals have an unconscious source. I don't think a drill bit at
> >the bottom of the ocean thinks ...
I am very confused about this. How does a drill bit think? This is not a
meme or even information, it's a drill bit. Why are you treating it
differently?
>
> Granted. So Dtretske's theory doesn't differentiate between passive
> phenomena and purposeful communications? I guess that makes sense,
> both are signals from the environment and the fact that the latter
> may be more complex doesn't seem to make a difference.
Of course it does.
>
> >Hmmm... Seeing memes as historical entities which are necessarily
> >classified by their lineage is central to the concept of memetics.
> >Information theory (or 'signal theory' as Dretske would call it) seems
> >to be an indispensible element. If there's an intractable problem with
> >identifying a meme at the stage of it's lifecycle when it is transmitted
> >from one host to the next, then there seems to be an intractible problem
> >for a science of memetics.
>
> Why would it be hard to identify the meme when it is transmitted?
I don't get this....(?) How can a meme have a life cycle?
It isn't a meme *unless* it is transmitted.
>
> Here's a textbook example I read last night in the latest Skeptic
> (vol. 4, no. 2) in John Hartung's "Prospects for Existence" (a
> very Virian essay BTW):
>
> "Before there were written laws and governments to enforce
> them, abortion and infanticide were privately practiced in
> most, if not all, societies. A common reason for infanticide
> was the birth of twins. Most mothers in hunter-gatherer
> societies, especially those who already had children, could
> not obtain enough food to nurse two babies without losing
> more than one offspring. Accordingly, mothers who believed
> that it was right to kill one of two twins had more offspring
> to whom she could teach that belief. When such beliefs reach
> a critical threshold by a process analogous to natural selection,
> they become the stuff of cultural norms and religious convictions.
>
> Spot the meme.
Here's what I spot.
While researching the Gothic Impulse for my theatre paper I came across
several thumbnail versions of "the gothic"(and of murder fiction) one
characterstic is a fascination with dopplegangers, evil twins, doubles,
negative reflections and transformations of one being into another-- all
of which spring from and support the practice described above.
The meme has developed and evolved to a point where we accept it without
question. We are totally prepared for the "evil twin" scenario.
Bram Stoker's "Dracula" is rife with these elements. I will be posting
my thesis isn the next week or so. If you are interested, drop by my
home page to see it.
-- Regards +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Ken Pantheists http://www.lucifer.com/~kenpan Virus Theatre http://www.lucifer.com/virus/theatre TooBa Physical Theatre Centre http://www.tooba.com +--------------------------------------------------------------------+