It occurs to me what a wonderful meme is that of "enlightenment" (and,
after all, this level 3 thing is quite clearly just a variant of the
enlightenment meme). It is surely one of the most seductive to the
more "searching" of minds, that one comes to the conclusion that one
can transcend all of the petty motivations of life, realise that our
emotions are mere delusions and illusions, that nothing, in fact,
truly matters. We can sit on a cloud and look down on all the
snivelling, ignorant humanity around us, completely blinded by their
own petty little worlds and which we can see for what they truly are.
Seductive, yes, to the evolved mind which wants to obtain as much
control over its environment as it can. That wants to identify
solid processes of cause and effect. That wants to dominate and
control and convince its fellows that it knows something they don't.
One way to do it is to convince yourself that you've identified the
one solid and incontrovertible fact that underlies, well, everything;
and then build your philosophy on top of that, certain of its rock
solid base and your own logic allowing you to arrive at whatever
conclusion you're after. If there are any refugees from The Thinking
Man's Minefield here, they'll know what I mean (just do a search for
the phrase on Yahoo if you don't).
But that's just an example of how the process might work, sneaking
up behind you cloaked in logic. The process is what really interests
me, the fitness of the meme itself. And it's good, isn't it, to know
that you know better, to know that you're exempt from those silly
emotions, to be, well, godlike, in your own mind. Very comfortable,
very powerful, very, uh, self-aggrandizing. It's a damn good meme.
> If there is interest, I'll conduct a free mini-seminar in life purpose over
> IRQ some evening. Send me private email if you're interested.
And there's another variant. The enlightenment meme with a
proseletyze modifier. Of course, every guru needs disciples.
Richard, is this the only use you've come up with for memes? As
camouflage for enlightenment? Oh dear, oh dear...
Tim (definitely not enlightened, nor level 3).
P.S. I don't normally hang out much on virus, but I do hang out
on The Critical List (http://www.alphacrucis.com/CriticalList, or
critical-l-request@mlists.net)
P.P.S. That said, I am about to go travelling for 2 weeks so if
anyone wants to discuss this issue, please send me personal email
and be patient.
-- Timothy M. C. Abbott, Ph.D. http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/~tmca/ Resident Astronomer tmca@cfht.hawaii.edu Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Tel: +1 808 885 7944 Box 1597, Kamuela, HI 96743 Fax: +1 808 885 7288