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

Dave Pape (davepape@dial.pipex.com)
Tue, 17 Dec 1996 01:07:25 GMT


At 14:26 16/12/96 -0600, you wrote:
>On Mon, 16 Dec 1996, Alex Williams wrote:
>
>> "zaimoni@ksu.edu" at Dec 16, 96 11:46:18 am
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>> > Yes, the state-space of all reachable algorithms is the "preexisting" bit.
>>
>> By that reasoning, /no/ process of discovery in the intellectual field
>> is anything more than a "hunt," as the state-space of all possible
>> memes/physical-states is being "searched."
>
>We're pushing some fine lines here. A nonalgorithmic search is *not* a
>hunt. My impression is that a genetic algorithm is an algorithmic search
>[that usually uses (pseudo)random numbers....]

Erm... if we consider science to be a set of memes, and if we consider memes
to interact according to evolutionary processes... well... isn't scientific
development a sort of hunt in state-space, trickling down the
energy-contours into ever-more stable structures of memes... that's
certainly what it LOOKS like, to me.

There is no such thing as anything.

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