Re: virus: Level 3

Robin Faichney (r.j.faichney@stir.ac.uk)
Thu, 29 May 1997 11:37:00 +0100


Eric Boyd wrote:
>
>Robin Faichney wrote:
>> [Eric wrote]
>> >If I ever do end up beleiving in a God, this is probably the way
I'll
>> >go... I can't actually see there really /being/ a God, but the
>> >postualate of His existance could turn out to be quite powerful...
>>
>> Why believe in "existence"? Seems pretty faith-like to me.
>> Isn't it just a meme? Why not make what use you can of the
>> memes "God", "existence", etc, without clinging to any of
>> them?
>
>Help me out here guys: is this even possible? Can I use a meme without
>being "infected" by it to a certain extent.

If you use it, you're infected by it, by definition. All it "wants"
is that you pass it on. Whether you actually believe in it is up
to you.

>Could this in fact be
>"Level 4" as it were... the ability to use /all/ meme's and be
>/unaffected/ by any of them?

I think this, or something like it, is just Level 3, though I haven't
gotten around to reading Richard's book yet.

>Nice idea, but I'm not that "smart" or what have you. I'll simply have
>to beleive it for it to be any good to me.

Don't be so down on yourself! I bet you act on "working
hypotheses" every day. You're much smarter than you
think! ;-)

Robin