I think this is more what I mean by false- These beliefs are not the
'natural' occupiers of this strange space within the memory- some meme
wanted to put something else there but could not. A meme without a
country. A fact without a phone number. Belief wins.
>What is the difference between believing the above propositions, and
>knowing them?
Are beliefs knowable? Are the winners always right?
>I repeat my question of a few weeks ago: can one live without any beliefs?
To answer much more facilely than the question deserves, yes, as I do.
(Or I try damn hard.) According to many of my compatriots on skeptic
listservs, I am not alone.
>Yes, some beliefs take up so much space (I like this metaphor), that indeed
>they preclude competing memes from even being perceived. However, wouldn't
>we be better off calling such beliefs "biases"?
Yes, we may. Those on the outside of these beliefs often do.
>Might some memes (to adopt your view of them as memory organizers) better
>enable competing memes
I am not sure I see any sort of competition at the meme level yet-
remember, I'm still sitting on this fence, and I'm trying to really,
really, beat the meme down to its quantum level. Competition would be on
the other side- the side where memes are distributers of these memories-
although the question of what places the memory is not answered, it could
be by pretty simple genetics for a start.... It's a narrow fence, could
hurt after not too long....
>might we not simply
>conclude that some memes are more equal than others?
It's the clusters of memory that acquire values, not the memes. (To keep
strictly on this side of the fence- I am attempting to keep D. Advocate
flight 105 in the air here....)
>And why can't I substitute "beliefs" for "memes" in the paragraph I just
>wrote?
I would insist you do- only a belief has an option for extending it's run
due to popular pressure. Could an expanding aggregate of memories
(conducted by a school of memes) displace these beliefs? Yes. I certainly
hope so, and would claim it is apparent, as Zeus no longer has anything
to do with lightning.
Well, I be still workin' on it....
***************************************
Wade T. Smith
_____________ wade_smith@harvard.edu
_____________ morbius@channel1.com
_____________ morbius@cyberwarped.com
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