To Jonathan and Platt
>From Roger
JONATHAN WROTE:
Great post Roger, I agree with many of your ideas. However I am having
trouble with [your] part on "imitation": "Memes arise due to man's unique
ability to imitate. This is an
extremely difficult process that we take for granted . . ."
Isn't the ability of DNA to replicate itself the same as imitation?
Does the old DNA replicate itself, or is it imitated?
ROGER:
We agree. The difficult part is non-genetic imitation. Which can also be
called replication or copying. You are right that DNA figured this out a
long, long time ago.
JONATHAN:
The ability of a pattern to perpetuate/replicate is the key to the
continued existance of that pattern, at whatever level. It may even be
the very definition of a pattern, for failure to persist is the
antithesis of existance.
ROG:
I concur exactly.
JONATHAN:
I think that what we are referring to goes a lot further than simple
imitation. Humans can *consciously* and *selectively* imitate in an
"intelligent" fashion that apparently exceeds any similar capacity in
any other species. Furthermore, mankind has expanded his powers of
imitation immensely with incredible communications and recording
"technology",starting with language itself. When you do computer based
training, this is taken to an extreme!
One result of the explosion of non-genetic copying mechanisms means that
the inadequacy of genetics to explain everything about mankind becomes
numbskullingly obvious.
ROG:
We are in 100% alignment as far as I can tell on this issue. Read Non Zero
by Richard Wright. You will get a kick out of it. (Platt turned me on to it)
Roger
PS -- Platt, how are you doing? Everything OK? I enjoyed your recent lengthy
debate on science.
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
