Re: virus: Angelica de Meme

Tim Rhodes (proftim@speakeasy.org)
Mon, 31 Mar 1997 11:10:16 -0800 (PST)


On Mon, 31 Mar 1997, Tony Hindle wrote:

> Prof Tim Said:
> >Interesting. Are you saying that the spiritual/religious traditions of
> >angels vs. demons are in fact encrypted analogies for this memetic process
> >that have arisen as a byproduct of the selection pressures of those very
> >same memetic processes on thier host culture?
> I cant quite follow this question but I feel close to it can I
> ask for some clarification for my next try please?

I'm thinking that memes and the qualities and nature of their interaction
had to exist pre-Dawkins. So it would not be unlikely that humans would
have noted that interplay and constructed symbolic representations of
those dynamics (I.E. spirits, angels, demons, etc) in the past. They may
have been partly or even wholly unaware of what process they were
encrypting in the code of the "spirit world". But since the encryption
itself, the myth as it were, is working within the same dynamic ("spirit
world" for them, "meme ecology" for us) it will adapt to suit the
qualities of that system. That is to say, a myth about angels and demons
(that mirror memes) will adapt to become a more accurate representation of
the way the memes that they mirror interact in the culture. This might be
a strange form of rational feedback on the encoding (myth making)
process.

Does that help any?

-Prof. Tim