Re: virus: The Meme Machine

Robin Faichney (robin@faichney.demon.co.uk)
Thu, 1 Apr 1999 20:05:50 +0100

In message <3.0.2.32.19990401192240.007a6da0@pop.dial.pipex.com>, Dave Pape <davepape@dial.pipex.com> writes
>>equally true for consciousness and matter -- she talks about
>>"the physical self" as if that would remain once all memes
>>had been discounted.
>
>So are you subscribing to the view that the physical world is as illusory
>as the mental world because we only ever perceive it via our mental
>faculties? I think I once had a figure-of-8 thought in which I reasoned
>that the cognitive world is a kind of software running on physical
>hardware, but that in a way the cognitive world simultaneouslly /underlies/
>the physical world because to cognate (cognise?) is the only way for
>anything to feel the physical world. I guess the buddhist perspective is
>something like melting that figure-of-8?

Probably. It's the distinctions that are illusory. There is neither mind nor matter, but there is something -- the illusion is to see that something as divided into mind and matter. (Even if you say one is real and the other unreal, as materialists usually do, and SB seems to.) Ultimately, all is one.

>>On the other hand, of course, if she had
>>gotten all that right, there would have been nothing left for
>>me to do! :-)
>
>Don't you do... psychology research or something? Or are you talking in
>terms of a kind of personal journey?

I'm working on a modern metaphysics, based on information, and encompassing "the physical world", consciousness, and memes (among other stuff). If you're interested, take a look at http://www.conscious-machine.com -- but bear in mind I don't really view it as ready for general publication yet. I haven't submitted it to any search engines, nor have I mentioned it on any newsgroup or mailing list until now. Virions get privileged access! :-)

-- 
Robin