> This is one of my current personal mysteries James. Dont most of
>us on this list want objective reality to find it's way into the
>subjective models of as many people as possible (me included, it's just
>my own personal subjective reality I want to experiment with).
It depends. If objective reality exists, it is inescapable, and must
comprise at least part of the subjective models of all rational persons.
The nature of objective reality is difficult to define, and has occupied
the efforts of several of us for quite a while. David R. and Tad and
others have had little success on agreeing on the nature or
characteristics or objective reality, as a browse through the back
messages of this forum will attest.
If objective reality is knowable, accurately and reproducibly among
various persons, then it is part of knowledge. If objective reality has
aspects that are currently not investigable (the best existing telescope
is not of sufficient power to see planets in the Magellanic Cloud
nebulas), sufficiently descriptable (Is light a wave, a particle, both or
neither?), or varies among persons significantly due to differences in
individual perception (the birth-blind man asks, "What is color?"), then
one needs to describe the areas / limitations to the set of knowledge
that all can agree on as common. This is another set of problems, and
there may be more!
> As I model all this, I see memetics as a tool that once
>incorporated into one's mental tool kit, can be used to reduce the
>sensitivity of our innate buttons. Allowing us more personal choice in
>what we are thinking about.<
Agreed, a very useful and widely-applicable tool.
<snip truth and delusions>
> I see it subtly differently at the mo. People are mainly
>infected with delusions designed by others. I know I have many (even
>though I have been trying to identify and eject the one's I dont want
>for many years now.)<
Good; we are all infected, with some useful memes and some that impair
us, and all trying to sort them out.
<Snip backquote of personal use of memetics>
> I believe we are in complete agreement on this point.
>Do you possess any arguments (that you hold in esteem) against why
>memetics should not be more widely spread? <
No.
I have Buddhist leanings that are known here; truth is invaluable, and
the need to spread truth and enlarge it is unceasing. Memetics appears to
be a useful tool in the search for truth, and as such I encourage its use
and dissemination (infection of the populace).
Cheers!
james