Peter you wrote,
> Now, my question is this: is "memetics" a subject which is (at least
> potentially) one which can be approached 'scientifically'? - regular
readers
> of this list will know what I mean - I don't mean that science is the only
> allowable perspective, but to avoid undue 'woolly-ness' and wild
speculation
> (a la "X-Files"), it doesn't hurt to give it a quick once-over with the
old
> logic-scanner to see if it's a trojan horse. And its certainly necessary
in
> order to achieve congruence with other, more established disciplines.
> Forgive my ignorance in this area, and I look forward to enlightenment.
(in
> fact, I'm never so interested as when faced with unexplored territory!)
<< Memetics, can at least in my view, but also in many other memetisists
their mind, be approached scientifically. At least we try to.
The thing is that we don 't really know what memes are (units of information
is quite a general term). On the other hand, we don 't seem to come any
closer to a consensus_we are working still along seperate lines...Dennett,
Brodie, Dawkins himself, Lynch, Blackmore etc...
Also, and that is more a personal opinion, the problem is that most meme-
tisists don 't come down to the basic, that is the human- individual.
Most of us, seem to tend more to the general level of society or culture.
They stay, I would say, far more to often in their ivory tower debating
with eachother over how to approach certain things but going into the
matter itself is quite other case.
Anyway, memetics, can be applied in psychology, psychiatry, social
sciences, technology, biology, ethics, crime- reduction and also in concepts
of
philosophy, especially in concepts of self- building, memetic engineering
and learning processes.
Of course, all of these have their pro 's and cons.
Let me eloborate my point here with an example.
Most investigations into the psychological problems of people come down
to the model of disease, there is something wrong WITH YOU !!
With the meme- approach and especially with the Meme- Meme- View,
you come to a very different conclusion.
That is, that people are not in control of themselves, their memes are.
So, in the case of a murderer, it is not his fault but his memes did it for
him.
Of course, in a case like this, there is nobody to point at as who really
did
the murder, so he walks free.
Don 't be surprised, in the USA, there is already an existing case where
a murderer did walked free because his defence- laywer could proove
that the man has a genetic defect.
So, in my view the next step will be that the man 's defect-memes will act
as a defence- strategy.
On the other hand, if the technology allows it to do, we will be able to
search for such defects. So in order to protect yourself against yourself,
and to protect society against your defect- memes you will be ordered
to alter those memes. How, I do not know, yet.
Where must we begin our search you ask !?
I think a logical response would be at the individual level, that is
screening people and their relatives, that is, is there in the family a
tendency
towards neuroses, psychotic deseases or suicide...
Of course, I hear already the remarks, Nazi- Germany etc.. right you are,
but that is not the case here.
Memetics can help in understanding people, can help understand how and
where they tick, can help understand why we live in the society as she is
now and why we have built a culture as such.
Of course, and I do agree more, the ethical aspects of memetics are
enormous, we as memetisists know that and do understand this.
But in our opinion that is not a reason to let it go...
And to achieve congruence with other disciplines I think we are well
placed, we are searching for entities which probably are the building-
blocks of our true nature...Once we found them, a whole new world
will open up.
In order to do that, and the major reason why I joint this list is to pre-
sent an article in which I propose that memes are working in a solipsistic
way.
Memes are and act in a selfish way, my interest, among many others,
is to determine how selfish...if I may use that term...
But for now, I concentrate myself in trying to know you all and how
this list work.
In my view there is something common between you and me, each of
us is searching for something of Quality, maby we are searching for the
same thing but we give it at the present time a different name.
I called it Memetics, you Quality Events...maby we can conjunct...
Just a thought,
Peter,
Bye for now. Did I answer your question !?
Many regards,
Kenneth
( I am, because we are)
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