>At 02:43 PM 29/01/97 EST, David Rosdeitcher wrote:
>> It seems to me that the Church of Virus is promoting a mystical notion by
>>denying free will and claiming that the 'meme' is a higher power that
>controls
>>individuals and societies. While the 'meme' is a useful concept to understand
>>and influence the spread of ideas within oneself and throughout society, the
>>Church of Virus is using 'memes' to create a new religion in which one false
>>higher authority is replaced with another. I am suggesting that there is
>>something in the brain that is not understood yet which can accout for free
>>will. What do you think?
>
>I disagree. Control does not preclude free will. For instance, I can influence
>your behaviour with my words, but that doesn't mean I am a higher authority
>or that you have no free will.
I would say that you don't control him, and he has no free will.
What happens in this instance is, memes are transmitted from your memetic
space to his. Then, three processes take place:
1 Your memes compete for expression (through his actions) with memes
which already have a stake in his memetic resource (his brain) and which
disagree with your memes.
2 Your memes are incorporated into memetic ecologies comprised (again,
in his memetic space) of memes which AGREE with your memes.
3 The overall memetic ecology of his personality reaches a new
equilibrium, in which memes' stakes in his neural resource will have
altered, meaning that his body is bound to behave in an altered way.
So you don't control him... part of your memetic self becomes part of his
memetic self, and if this changes his memetic self sufficiently, his
behaviour will alter. I don't see that freewill has to come into the
equation. I think you have to replace the concept of a person as a singular
and individual agent with the concept of a person as a complex dynamic
equilibrium of memes. The person's behaviour (and thoughts, and feelings)
are necessarily linked to the changing states of that dynamic equilibrium.
Dave Pape
===============================================================================
The memetic equivalent of a G3 bullpup-design assault rifle blowing a full
clip at my opponent. (Alex Williams 1996)
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