Re: virus: Memes and Genes, stupid

zaimoni@ksu.edu
Thu, 23 Jan 1997 10:12:37 -0600 (CST)


On Wed, 22 Jan 1997, Dave Pape wrote:

[CLIP]

> What about a memetic definition of stupid or intelligent? Mine would be
> something like...
>
> A stupid personality arises from brainspace in which there aren't many
> tiers/levels of memetic processing... in that, the brain involved isn't
> thinking to many levels of abstraction.
>
> Hmm... what do I mean here...
>
> I think that ideas are what arise when groups of neurons interact. So,
> seeing a bit of edge or a corner or some colour in some part of your visual
> field is a very simple idea... with few levels of abstraction. Seeing a red
> car involves lots of simple ideas interacting... lots of simple neural
> groups getting together, firing as a larger-scale meta-group, giving rise to
> a more abstract, but more intelligent-sounding idea. Rather than "Blob!
> Line! Red... thing. Blob! Red thing again!" you say "Red car". More
> intelligent still is the idea "I don't want a red car because I don't want
> to seem ostentatious when I'm driving to work", because it's lots of quite
> abstract ideas interacting in an even more abstract way.
>
> So a personality that mostly thinks with perceptual (or motor) groups of
> neurons (a newly born baby for instance) seems less intelligent than someone
> who thinks with metametametagroups of metametagroups of metagroups of groups
> of neurons...

A personality that abuses perceptual/motor groups of neurons could well
think with those as metametagroups of metametagroups of metagroups of
groups of neurons....

There's something to be said for having a 600+ dimensional subconscious
workspace, encoded in the musculature.

Watch out for how he/she socializes, though: the usual bootstraps,
empirically, *always* key in on irrelevant cues.

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/ Towards the conversion of data into information....
/
/ Kenneth Boyd
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