Re: virus: The "science" of memes?

XYZ Customer Support (xyz@starlink.com)
Sun, 15 Dec 1996 13:33:55 -0700


> From: zaimoni@ksu.edu

> > Avoiding logical fallacies is not a meme. Very few people even know
> > anything about logical fallacies (unfortunately). Logic says if you
> > contradict yourself or say something that contradicts facts, then
> > what you say cannot be considered reliable evidence for anything. It
> > can be something that can be safely ignored then.

> A lynch mob cannot be safely ignored, regardless of their contradicting
> themselves or not.

A lynch mob's ideas can be safely ignored and that was my point. Their
actions are quite a different matter.

> > Evolution is not about replicators and since the evidence shows that
> > individuals do not evolve, then individuals cannot be vehicles for
> > imaginary selfish genes. Replicating is not evolving.

> The definition you are using fails to coincide with almost everyone
> else's on this list, as far as I can tell. In particular, you don't mean
> the same thing by evolution as I do.

I am not trying to fit my definition to everyone else's. That would be
subcumbing to peer pressure and not thinking. Most people don't
understand what evolution really is, they can only parrot what the
media tells them it is. Xians are especially guilty of this. You and
most people in this email list might be too. Evolution in it's simplest
form means "change of a species over time". Changes in individuals
means nothing unless the species adapts those changes.