> In a message dated 98-06-12 14:59:57 EDT, you write:
>
> << Although a thousand years is certainly a blink of an eye when compared to
> biological evolution. Memes evolve and are transmitted much faster than
> genes. (maybe 1 day vs. 20 years = 7300x as fast). This puts religion at a
> genetic age of over 10 million years (rough rough guess). Which is more
> significant.
>
> -Paul Prestopnik >>
>
> current legacy. For all we know we could be heading down a dead end. An
> immense partial catastrophe (one that doesn't wipe out the species), could
> wipe out most of our cultural artifacts. Additionally, some of the most
> virulent memes at work in the world threaten to "simplify" western culture to
> an extent many of us here would view as suspended animation if not extinction.
I did not mean to imply that I thought <religion> was going to continue to be a
succesfull meme. In fact, I think that within my life time the %infected by
<religion> will fall dramatically. In this case I feel it is because the
environment is changing. <Religion> will either have to mutate (I think so
radically it will be difficult to still call it <religion> ) or will be replaced
by a more virulant meme. Possibly psuedo-science.
> Would "genetic time" be faster yet than atomic time? Could you be talking
I'm not sure what you mean by atomic time.
> about rate of change instead of just rate of transmission? This is an
I felt that memes change *and* transmit faster than genes.
> interesting distinction that you make, but I am skeptical to treat memetic
> time, genetic time, and actual time as distinct. To us it seems like a lot of
I meant to distinguish them as dog years are distinguished. I can't think of a
better example, but I know it is out there.
> time, because it is important to us. But evolution is full of dead ends that
> in retrospect do not seem relatively important to anyone today accept a few
> researchers that discover them.
I agree that religion may very well become a memetic dead end. I do think that it
has evolved well over the years, but that the environment will change too
rapidly. Looking at society from 40 years ago, religion was probably evolved
near to it's utmost virulence.
> Mind you I don't see the cockroaches getting the upper hand here, but I still
> think the "blink of an eye" perspective is still more valid, particularly if
> we wish to envision something considerably longer than that blink.
<Religion> may leave us and other memes may infect huge portions of the
population, but it may be that society (meme's environment (or at least a piece of
it)) may continue to change so rapidly that no memes will gain a foothold as
secure (and lasting) as religions (in absolute time).
-Paul Prestopnik