Re: virus: MEME UPDATE: To Censor Or Not?

Matt Waggoner (mael1@ucla.edu)
Tue, 10 Dec 1996 19:57:54 -0800

At 00:59 12/11/96 GMT, Dave Pape wrote:
>
>Richard, I disagree with your claim that sometimes we human beings can
>"think for ourselves" and that sometimes "we are sheep". In saying that you
>yourself can appraise and reject memes connected with advertising or "moral
>decadence" but that others can't, you take a narrow view of memes' influence
>on your decisions.
>
>I don't believe in free will. What I feel as "new ideas" and "decisions" are
>memes/ideas associating and competing in my brain. All my thoughts, even
>those I used to think were "original", can be explained by memetic/cognitive
>interactions like:-
>

Et cetera.

As I'm sure you're aware, this view easily allows you to free yourself of
any responsibility for anything you do. The technical term for this is
'cop-out'. I agree that memes do influence us, the way we act and think,
but to say that we have no free will whatsoever implies that we have no
soul. I'm sure you can see the problems inherent in adopting that
particular philosophy.

I know I don't like being told I have no soul.

/----- Matt Waggoner - Maelstrom -----\
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