Re: virus: Rationality

Alexander Williams (thantos@alf.dec.com)
Thu, 06 Mar 1997 19:24:32 -0500


Martz wrote:
> Can I have a couple of examples of behaviour which fits your definition.
> I agree with you up as far as the comma but I don't see how the rest
> follows so inevitably that it 'clearly [puts you] in the court'. For
> that to be true you'd have to show me examples of behaviour which could
> be claimed to represent memetic modelling but which wasn't being
> transmitted (copied, tossed in the air to see if anyone bites, whatever)
> to other members of the same species (arguably also other species but
> let's keep it simple for now).

Keep in mind that behaviour is in a different class than deliberate
communication ...

My cat learning my schedule, for instance, and always waiting at the
same time in the same place for me to feed him is an example of some
kind of memetic modelling of his outside world without overt
communication. Wolves' modelling of the state of their pack, in knowing
when to go for the leader, etc, would seem to represent another form.
The complex social mores of primates, while being pre-communicable in
level are an example of a boundary set of behaviours.

Animals are clearly capable of creating internal models far more complex
than their ability to communicate them.

-- 
   Alexander Williams{thantos@alf.dec.com/zander@photobooks.com}
The  Mekton  is a  powerful tool,  both  physically and emotionally.
There is something that  happens to an  enemy when he sees his  home
and family stepped on by a hundred ton metal man.    -- Arkon Verian
====================================================================
Of  all the weapons of the  Empire, the  greatest and most respected
were the Metal Knights.  These Knights had served the leaders of the
Bendar for Generations,   righting wrongs and  bringing  fear to the
Empire's Enemies.  It is  said that these  metal giants were  shaped
like men so  that the alien servants of  Evil would know that it was
Man who defeated them.
                               -- Scribings from the Murian Archives