> This may be hopelessly simplistic, but if (as Richard Brodie says),
> "The Level-3 mind realizes that NO meme is True," isn't this mind
> accepting the meme "There is no absolute truth"? In all seriousness,
> this is the same problem I have with Robert Anton Wilson: it seems
> to be absolutist claim that there are no absolutes. This means there
> is at least one meme/belief that is still accepted as true. Related
> to this, on what basis does such a mind decide that a meme is
> useful? Where do its goals come from?
>
> Vicki
> rosenzweig@acm.org
Not noticing a subtle distinction on first pass is anything but
hopelessly simplistic. Thanks for pointing it out to me.
Just because one has a highly effective model of a given thing ["meme"]
does NOT mean the model is True [completely accurate]. In mathematical
modeling, one handles this by explicitly representing the error as some
obscure variable which cannot be determined effectively. Then [in easy
cases] one can explicitly study the effects of the error on the model's
predictions.
We don't have that luxury with memes.
Superficially, asserting that "NO meme is True" is actually having great
faith that there is an absolute truth about the subject matter which
memes describe, while denying that we can construct completely accurate
memes.
=====
Example:
Calculations of this sort come up in low-speed relativistic physics [it's
why Newton was so successful for 300+ years]
(1-(10^(-9))^2)^(0.5).
My Hewlett-Packard calculator "botches" this calculation; it thinks this
is 1.
To 32 decimal places, this is 1-5*10^(-17). There's no practical
difference, but the second is closer to "true" than the first. [It's not
"true" i.e. completely accurate, either.]
That is: unless you have a method of measuring distance accurate at
10^(-32) meters [the conjectured Planck scale for distance is "near"
this; if you did have such a method, a number of modern physicists would
pay $$$ for it], you will not be able to discern the difference between
Newtonian physics and Relativistic physics when comparing distances between
standing and walking.
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/ Towards the conversion of data into information....
/
/ Kenneth Boyd
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