Re: virus: Experimental memes. was:Random thoughts & more poor
Robert Moritz (robertmoritz@earthlink.net)
Tue, 18 Aug 1998 02:34:10 -0500
Tim Rhodes wrote:
>
> Robert Moritz wrote:
>
> >OK, silly question guys...is there anything that can be thought that
> >could not be considered a meme?
>
> By my criteria it must actually be transmitted before it falls in the
> catagory of "meme". That avoids this mistaken assumption:
>
> >Technically, anything that can be
> >thought can be replicated to another mind.
>
> But this is not so, my good man--technically or otherwise.
>
> As an artist I can tell you that much of the heavy lifting within the Arts
> is concerned with accomplishing that often herculian task of getting a
> thought from _inside_ ones mind and into a form in which it can be
> _transmitted_ into anothers mind. And it is no mean feet, let me tell you!
> Often the most indirect and obtuse routes must be taken in order that, when
> they finally converge in the mind of the viewer, the resultant reaction, the
> "ah-ha", recreates the subte complexity of the original thought which served
> as it's inspiration.
>
> The incredible number of drafts and mis-starts that never make it
> sucessfully out of the brain of an artist (and no doubt end up filling
> countless landfills each year), stand as a testiment to the fact that not
> all thoughts thunk are able to be replicated. And as such, do not all earn
> the distinction of being called a "meme".
>
> -Prof. Tim
Ah, but is it the nature of the idea that makes it possibly
irreplicable, or is it (i hate to say it, it sounds so insulting) a lack
of communication ability upon the part of the individual who has the
idea? Lets say a great artist and hellen keller both simultaneously had
the same idea. Since the artist can replicate it and poor hellen
cannot, is the very same idea called a meme in one case, and not in the
other? And if some miraculous cure for blindness and deafness came
about, would her idea suddenly become a meme?(the idea itself has not
changed one darn bit)Would it not be better to consider it like a
dormant meme?
Robert