Well, not to get overly pungent, but this small Radio Shack thingee I've
got next to me right now can do that, and I'm more than willing to bet
there ain't no meme anywhere in it, nor a meme required to push the
buttons.
_If_ there are memes, then they are _necessary and sufficient_
conditions, the only P for a Q. Most of current bio-neuro-chemical
sciences are finding that the P's in much behaviors is in fact based in
the brain or the hormonal system, and only partially culturally, possibly
not at all, much to the chagrin of psychologists and sociologists.
Yes, Tim, I am ISO that reduced specific behavior that shows us that a
meme absolutely, necessarily, positively, _has_ to be there. I ain't got
the slightest clue what it is. I had thought, in my cloud of thought,
that a carefully set up dream state might suffice, where some specific
brain activity is duplicated in wakefulness and sleep, but this would
require a long stint of minimal stimulus for the subjects, and I left it
in the alpha-wave dustbin it came from. NLP, interestingly enough, offers
some _experimental_ protocols, seems to me, although I neglect to see its
importance anywhere else, and indeed consider it an unethical form of
chicanery in most of its presentations.
But, again, to me, memetics without the meme is more like a theology.
"Sorry, old man, about the brick to your noggin, but this pesky meme made
me do it. Ain't my fault, and I can go to the CoV and get confessed."
The meme (and dammit, I like the thought that it's really there...) is
not the god (or the devil, or the angel, or the virus) of the mind. I
like to think it's a necessary and sufficient condition for language and
culture, but not a simple result of complexity. (! and I can't fathom
that I just wrote that, but there it is. I only edit this stuff for
spelling and syntax. I'll take my lumps for postmodern absurdities
delivered in the spur of the moment....)
I'm back to chapter 6 of Consilience (forgive the fact that my copy is
lent out at the moment) wherein Wilson really wants us to find the source
of culture, and of mind, but looking at culture ain't the way, although
it provides questions.
But, really, I'm lost, and I do sound silly at times. But I am listening.
*****************
Wade T. Smith
morbius@channel1.com | "There ain't nothin' you
wade_smith@harvard.edu | shouldn't do to a god."
******* http://www.channel1.com/users/morbius/ *******