Re: virus: Random thoughts & more poor analogies!

Nathaniel Hall (natehall@WORLDNET.ATT.NET)
Sat, 15 Aug 1998 20:27:26 -0600


Wade T.Smith wrote:
>
> >I put species in quotes
> >because there is no word out there to express what I needed too.
>
> Ah. And I am in no way willing to adapt any such a complete genetic
> lexicon to embroider any supposed 'memetic' processes within a brain.
> Once we have some handle (if we ever do) on memes and their clustering
> (if they do cluster...) methodologies, then maybe there will be some
> crossover from genetics and it's descriptors.
>
> I'm still waiting for those reductionist experimental protocols (even a
> thought experiment...) to get me to think anyone at all in this entire
> world has any idea where to even begin to look....
>
> *****************
> Wade T. Smith

One of the points of the original letter was that "species" did not fit
for memes because of the ease in which information can flow from mind to
mind as opposed to the way nature locks out information exchange
genetically between species. However because memes and genes are both
self replicating information I maintain there should be some
similarities.
I'm not quite sure by what you mean by "reductionist experimental
protocols" . Are you asking is it possible to determine if a meme has
occupied a mind? Then I'd say most folks have undergone such a "test".
Quite literally. I'm taking about the kind of test we all had to take in
school. Like the SAT or ACT. What is a test after all but an evaluation
to see if certain memes have successfully replicated into your mind? Its
the kind of data scientists love, ready made, complete with error
analysis!

Nate Hall