RE: virus: Angelica de Meme
Wright, James 7929 (Jwright@phelpsd.com)
Wed, 02 Apr 97 10:29:00 EST
Tony Hindle wrote:
> As I understand it ideas have power whether they are true or
false, <
Agreed.
>wider awareness of the nature of this "truth-independent"
spreading process will reduce it and therefore increase the relative
proportion of "truth-dependent" memes that spread.<
Debatable. David R. considers objectivism to be a desirable meme-complex;
he advocates that objectivism will (eventually) conquer cyberspace. The
Web is at least partially wider aware of Objectivism through his efforts
on this list, and presumably elsewhere. The prevalence of cult-religious,
commercial non-ideological and absolutely absurd personal web pages makes
this a difficult demonstration indeed, at least in the short run (current
experience).
> People will move to being more infected with the truth or self designed
dilusions. The net effect will be a better world.<
People are already infected with self-designed delusions; this is the
state of the majority of the population, according to many viewpoints
(psychology, Buddhism and probably even Objectivism; David, any comment?)
The existing state of the world is unlikely to give reassurance of the
adjective "better", although hope for improvement is not absent.
I would contend that the wider awareness of memetics will improve the
opportunity for people to be aware how others try to manipulate them
through crafting memes that take advantage of useful propagation traits;
whether they use this information to their own advantage must of
necessity be a personal experience.
Cheers!
james