Re: virus: Sign memes & Chomsky
Tony Hindle (t.hindle@joney.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 16 Apr 1997 13:04:01 +0100
In message <970415.190144.CT.COOKCORE@ESUVM>, "Corey A. Cook"
<COOKCORE@esuvm.emporia.edu> writes
>And I think that Tony's model is:
>I reckon that all languages share a high order grammar that
>is a reflection of the mental modules that exist in the common
>innate substrate of the brain.
>
>The diffence is that my model doesn't take into account the
>'speech centers' of the brain. Very well:
>The reason that all languages share a high order grammer is
>1) All cultures are linked, somehow.
>2) All languages attempt to describe the same Universe.
>3) All languages (so far) have been constructed by brains
> which were constructed by the same basic pattern.
If all cultures are linked and that link is the cause of the
similarities in grammar then there is no interesting findings to
explain, this may be the case. But if we have seen studies on genuinely
linguistically isolated environments then the fact that they share a
common high level grammar needs explaining.
Languages with very different gramar could say the same things
about the same universe so I think your point 2 is not very persuasive.
Point 3 is where we are in agreement. All this is interesting
and it makes me look foreward to reading one of the books Ive ordered.
Prof Tim wrote:
>I have the feeling that while /access/ to information will expand, there
>will also be a trend (that we are already seeing) toward specialization in
>knowledge. A conflicting pull towards Guilds or Societies (or University
>Depts) with an exponential greater, more in depth understanding of a
>given field than the layman could hope to understand. We already have
>this in many fields (Physics, Fine Arts), where the lag time between
>discovery and public understanding can be years or even decades.
Arn't specialist cultures the memetic equivalent of genetically
isolated groups becoming specialists in thier particular environments?
The specialist cultures allow memetic evolution to accelerate
towards a model that explains in depth the specialists field. (well I
reckon this is the case for science, for some of the arts its memetic
evolution but no model explaining anything emerges).
>
>Should we form the Memeticist's Guild now, or wait `til later?
Why put off until tomorow what we can leave until after that?
Tony Hindle.
I wonder what the french say when they get Deja-vous