> KMO wrote:
> > On what basis do memes compete with one another? Human brains seem to
> > have finite storage capacity, so there would seem to be competition
> > between memes for this limited resource, but that would seem to pit all
> > memes against each other equally in a memetic free-for-all. That
> > doesn't seem to be the case. Some memes facilitate the propagation of
> > some memes and hinder the propagation of others, i.e. there seems to be
> > some memetic mechanisms which give rise to compatibility/incompatibility
> > relationships between memes, but I have no idea what those mechanisms
> > are.
[CLIP--explanation]
> The question is - Which "commerical firms" would be interested in inducing memes to make lots of anti-memetic
> substances by limiting the amount of thought-resources within our minds?
> Tyrannies? Radicals? Preachers? Politicians?
> Or maybe real commercial firms -- Coca Cola against Pepsi Cola, McDonalds against Burger King, even Microsoft
> against Netscape...
>
> Think about it
>
> Lior.
The section of the American education system I am exposed to is so
Taoist, I find suggesting IT as a plausible candidate. I don't know
about "interested in..." but I seriously suspect that restriction of
thought-resources is well-implemented.
Fragmentary evidence:
CIS professor, when I was taking CIS 500 [this really refers to the
CIS 300 most of these students came from!](paraphrase, of course):
"Fourteen of you handed in this extra credit project." [Rings in CIS are
only slightly more related to the real world than rings in abstract
algebra.] "Only ONE of those even INITIALIZED correctly! I am going to
file a complaint to this department about the incompetents who let you
graduate from CIS 300 with a B!...." [Translation: the 14 students who
handed this in (NOT ME!) lacked self-grading ability--a major
thought-resource.]
[I will not complain about him. I got an A in that course. 60
entry: 25 drop on last day with a W, 19 F, 6 A.]
I am faced with a Calc II student, after Exam II [half the students
got Bs or As, the instructor's generous], as we both stare at the Calc II
board. "Look, we've NEVER done that kind of problem before!"
"What do you mean?"
"This is minimize distance! I've never done that, only minimize
area problems!" [The mathematical procedure is IDENTICAL! This
student's translation skills (thought-resources) fail to exist. The
frightening thing is, he may yet graduate and inflict his ignorance on
our next generation of buildings....]
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/ Towards the conversion of data into information....
/
/ Kenneth Boyd
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