Re: virus: CoV Memetics: Mysticism of the 90's

Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Fri, 14 Feb 1997 16:47:26 -0800 (PST)


On Wed, 12 Feb 1997, Dave Pape wrote:

> But, just like to /fully/ understand a chemical reaction you'd need to
> understand ALL conditions throughout the whole universe, to fully understand
> a person, you'd need to understand the entirety of culture just prior to
> making your prediction, and you'd have to know just how their memetic
> ecology was structured... probably entailing knowing how their brain is
> physically wired up...

In Australia there is an anteater, /Echidna/, a prosimian, that somehow
went down an evolutionary dead end. It has a tremendously developed
frontal cortex. If we had as large, in proportion to limbic system, we'd
need to carry our brains around in wheelbarrels. But it is stupid, a
veritable moron amongst anteaters. Why? Because it has to /fully/
understand something in order to act. It has to work everything out, do
all the math, before it can do anything. It can't /guess/. It doesn't
have /hunches/, it lacks a developed limbic system to process partial
information. Fortunately, we do not. Humans have the most developed
limbic systems on the planet. We /can/ act even if we don't have all the
facts. We /do/ have intuition even if we can't put a finger on what that
is, objectively.

-Prof. Tim