Re: virus: Together or Not

Tom Parsons (parsonst@icarus.ihug.co.nz)
Tue, 25 Nov 1997 08:49:15 +1300


At 01:05 AM 11/24/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Just watch the process happen. It is there to be seen in every infant, as
>its hardware and software develop to the point where the *I* phenomenon
>(which I doubt is a meme) happens. It is well established that the
>conceptual distinction between self and environment occurs in stages.
>
>Surely this individual development is similar to the progression to larger
>and differently-organized brains that occurred during our evolution.
>
>Tom
>
>List,
>
>Is this like saying "watch the bald baby grow dark hair" but "I doubt that
>hair is genetic" (being developmental...hardwired..."soft" wired?).
>
>But otherwise, excellent point...this is how I do this to...watching normal
>development. But I would say that (isn't it obvious) "I" IS a meme.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Not to me. Habitual reference to a mental self-image, and the reification of
that image, is a more fundamental restructuring of one's entire mental
operation than what I would usually think of as a meme.

Isn't a proper meme an all-or-nothing unit like any organism? However,
humans develop an ego sense, the "I", or a concept of the distinction
between self and other in stages. Maybe I'm just too new to this
discussion, and I might be using specialized words in a slightly incorrect
way (locally speaking).

But
>the theory behind this assumption is that developmentally, we select for
>characteristics which encode the environmental circumstances within which
>they have survived. That is, developmentally, we must progress through
>these ordered "stages" which show groups of characteristics arranged in a
>memetic pattern.
>
Do you mean "Why have a heart if you have no blood?"? I agree that whole
complexes of mutually-supporting behaviors must coexist or no single one of
them could survive.

Tom