>> How do people feel about this: every time you "believe in"
>> anything, a meme has you in its thrall.
>
> I think saying that the acceptance of any meme puts you in its thrall is
>going a bit overboard. The memetically aware, such as ourselves, aren't
>necessarily enslaved by memes. Sure, we know that what we're doing is
>determined by whatever memes we're hosting, but I wouldn't say that we're
>helplessly following their dictates. Or maybe I'm being controlled by
><free-will> :) .
> (...) Now which is more minimal? I think it's
>the latter that uses Occam's razor.
I think the meme-aware have rationally *chosen* <free-will> over other
competing memes. Same for <rationality> and <Occam's razor>. (The non
meme-aware have not made a conscious choice.) These memes are axiomatic
memes, which we use to base our choices of which other memes we choose to
host.
To host no memes whatsoever is to be unable to reach any conclusion, hold
no beliefs, non-beliefs, or disbeliefs. We would literally be unable to
get out of bed in the morning if that were the case, for doing that
requires belief in <I exist>, <bed exists>, etc.
According to Goedel's theorem, there is no rational way to rationally prove
that these axioms are true, for we'd always hit a self-refential statement.
My very belief in <Goedel's theorem> is based on other memes. We who
think critically hold these so-called axiomatic memes to be "working
hypotheses," to use Robin's expression.
lena
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Lena Rotenberg
lenar@hermesnet.net