**** (footnote--- personal communication through Eric
Drexler)
is that certain "agents" built with patterns from outside
could enhance the stability of a complex mind. He discussed a
variety of mental "agents" in Society of Mind, reviewed in
Cryonics some time ago. One class, censors, would be especially
useful if kept someone's mind from spiraling down into a blue
funk over unanswerable questions. Ideas that when a family
member died he had gone to "the happy hunting grounds," and that
you would see him again might make a big difference in the
survival of grief- stricken relatives. Jane Goodall's report of
a case where a chimpanzee seems to have died of grief gives this
model some credibility. (The chimp was believed to have had an
abnormally strong attachment to his mother.)
This is very speculative, but "religious" memes could have
"functions" such as reducing the effects of grief or answering
philosophical questions about which it was (genetically)
unprofitable to ponder. These memes would be favored in a causal
loop if they improve the survival of people carrying genes which
tend to destablize a person's mental state, but otherwise improve
their survival.
<<<snip cyronics section>>>
>>>
** As an aside, there actually seems to be a very small
chunk of brain tissue that might be called a "religious
stabilizing module." In rare cases where this area was destroyed,
the victims could change what seemed to be deeply held religious
beliefs several times a week!**can you find the source for
this?**
<<<
Well, this is the first post that has affected me enough to repost it.
Whether this tells more about myself or the early days of virus, I
can't say. I guess that I have always held the conviction that
religions serve *some* purpose. From the viewpoint contained
in this post, it seems that the purpose of religions no longer
matters as much. Without the intense pressures to survive that
our ancestors evolved under, it almost seems that religions
are an unnecessary baggage, rather than a necessary mind-
dulling tool.
That last part about a religious part of the brain is certainly interesting.
Has anyone else heard of this?
CA Cook, LF
coreycook12@email.msn.com
Religion: a necessary mind-dulling tool.