RE: virus: Rationality

Richard Brodie (RBrodie@brodietech.com)
Sun, 2 Mar 1997 20:32:22 -0800


In a moment of rare disagreement, David McF wrote:

[RB]
>>Rather than call things "laws of the universe," why not use Dennett's
>>"good tricks" terminology? In other words, there are certain
>>furmulations that naturally occur because they are efficient ways of
>>doing things. Logic would seem to be one of these in the memetics world.
>
>Because "laws of the universe" refers to something independent of
>humans and their culture, whereas "good tricks" does not.

Reread the section in "Darwin's Dangerous Idea." "Good Tricks" is indeed
independent of humans, and refers to naturalistic "engineering"
achievements that keep recurring simply because they give good bang for
the buck in evolutionary design-space. "Laws of the universe" implies
that there are mystical forces outside of, but directing, objective
reality. And I know no one here would want that!

Richard Brodie RBrodie@brodietech.com +1.206.688.8600
CEO, Brodie Technology Group, Inc., Bellevue, WA USA
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie
Do you know what a "meme" is? http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
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