>Warning! This is a long post. <snip> You would do me a great honor by
printing it out and considering it at your leisure.
Excellent post Reed! I did as you suggested. (I was even able to overlook
that my definitions had been attributed to Eric :-)
>Just to keep us "on the same page" David's map
is at:
>http://virus.lucifer.com/tgrid.gif
>1) I personally don't like the bounded nature of the grid.
I'd changed one of my own versions the same way since I didn't want to put
an upper limit on knowledge. Though I've found in different cases that
ranges of [-infinity, infinity], [-1, 1] and [0, 1] are all good, and
subtly different..
>Thus: In an attempt to strip away language which would be circular or
"value-laden" with respect to the current dialectic, among a great many
other agendas, I propose the following modified T-grid, which David has
been kind enough to include at:
>http://virus.lucifer.com/TgRGK.gif
Nice work!
>The T-grid represents a rationalist's approach to understanding behavior
and thus, as shown, is solidly a "Level-2" picture. I present it, as I'm
sure David presented the original, as a tool for understanding...not as an
attempt to exclude other visual representations.
This is an important point. These 2-D slices of n-dimensional metaphysical
space can be compelling...sometimes too compelling and we start to think it
explains everything.
----------------------------------
>The Lexicon:
>EVIDENCE: A weighted sum of the evaluation of all other theses with
respect to the thesis being considered. <snip> This avoids the creation of
some arbitrary standard of "absolute evidence" against which to evaluate
all theses.
Excellent! I have been uneasy with the assumption that the evidence
existed independent of any subjective evaluation and therefore glossed it
over. This is an elegant solution to the problem.
>This web of influence can be thought of as a
sort of "meme-gravity" each idea influencing all the others.
Cool. This is the first step to defining the Dynamics of meme-space. If we
take "strength of belief" to be analogous to "mass" in the system, then we
can represent two space dimensions on the graph of meme-space.
For example, in the ice cream example, one axis could be "Chocolate" and
the other "Strawberry" and each meme in a person's meme-space could be
plotted on the graph insofar as it supports the "I like Chocolate" and "I
like Strawberry" propositions respectively. Each meme has a "mass"
proportional to how strongly it is believed.
The center of mass of all the memes that have bearing on the question
"Chocolate or Strawberry?" could be hypothesized to be the individual's
position on the question at any point in time. (I use "individual" in place
of "I" for ease of reading)
If the gravity analogue holds we could then predict how an individual's
position on the question would evolve with time (in isolation -- before the
individual became stark raving mad from sensory deprivation :-)
More realistically, the interaction of the individual's memes with the
environment would also be providing other forces and new memes (masses)
into the system.
Perhaps too, the "I" is only represented by the center of mass of the 5-7
memes that can be held in short term memory at any one time. Thus an
individual's position could fluctuate chaotically simply due to which memes
are active.
>INNOCENCE: The origin. This is the position for theses for which you
have no beliefs and for which your meme-sphere gives you no evidence.
This corresponds to what I defined as "Thrift". Because I wasn't clear
enough it was mistakenly assumed that I meant Thrift to correspond to the
lower-left corner of the T-Grid, but it was intended as the origin. (I'm
still working on the symmetry "problems" I see in the grid...more later)
<snip great description and examples of how the model works>
>5). We reply with something like:
"That's insane! All the evidence indicates the thesis is false yet you say
it is true!"
>The problem, here as usual, is an inappropriate conflation of models. We
are evaluating the position of the other as if it were a component of our
meme-sphere and not an alien conjunction of memes.
Great!
<snip a whole bunch of good stuff>
>It is for this reason that I would propose renaming the so-called "Reed
Principle" the Discipline of Translation.<snip> Instead of trying to drag
their memes, individually, into line with yours my suggestion is to try to
adopt their way of thinking, to truly delve into the undiscovered country
of an alien meme-sphere.
<snip>
>Imagine that other person's memesphere as a galaxy. All you have to do is
figure out how to move and rotate yours to match it. When you are done you
will have the memetic equivalent of an equation of translation.
Love the idea! (not too crazy about the name though. Both words have
multiple connotations. I can't read it without having the image of a
sadistic French teacher pop into my head :-)
I find that your description of the principle reminds me of Empathy --
understanding where the other person is coming from, and Emulation --
actually processing the other person's memes inside your own head.
If it weren't such a butt-ugly neologism I would propose "Empulation" for
the process you described. :-)
Cheers
Deron
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