Re: virus: TT and Absolute Truth

Tadeusz Niwinski (niwinska@direct.ca)
Fri, 15 Nov 1996 01:20:08 -0800


Alexander Williams wrote:
>Tadeusz Niwinski wrote:
>> Do memes *need* life in order to exist -- or *they* create life?!

>Tad, maybe this decries my rather `of the dirt' earthy take on things,
>nillhist that I may be, but doesn't the very definition of meme
>/necessitate/ some kind of thinking entity to support the meme
>population? There may be the /potential/ for memes to occur latent in
>the very fact that there is an Objective Reality, but without a host
>environment there are no memes just as without a biosphere there are no
>genes, though they /could/ exist were conditions condusive.

Good point. The definition of a meme sucks. Richard Dawkins talks about
"cultural" information only, Richard Brodie in the "Virus of the Mind"
brings also other definitions. What are "dormant" memes David McF recently
talked about?

Can memes exist without hosts? The analogy with genes does not work here.
A gene does not exist without a host, but a blueprint for a gene of a
dinosaur, for example, may exist as information and some scientist may use
the blueprint to build it's DNA (and have a popular movie...). The
information part of the gene may exist -- in that sense -- without a host. But
memes *are* information. This information may be stored somewhere in our
neurons or in a book, etc. The question is still open. If a meme does not
have any host carrying it, does it exist?

Take the pi meme for example (the one with a very long tail :-)). As far
as I understand Richard, he claims the pi-meme does not exist outside of
human culture. I cannot wait till David McF comes back to ask him what
he means by "dormant" memes.

---------------------
Tad Niwinski from TeTa where people grow
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816
40628620899862803
Danger!!! Danger!!! DANGER!!!
The Level-3 Hypocrisy Virus (L3HV) is threatening YOU and your children!
PROTECT yourself: never talk to an infected person without a condom!