This may be a level-2 response, but if so, it's all I can
do (even by your own assumptions), so please try to help me
comprehend what you're trying to say. At the moment, it looks like
I'm being asked to buy a pig in a poke: is there any way you
can convince me that you have something worthwhile here that
doesn't require me to buy your book (or convince a friend or library
to buy it)? For that matter, are you willing, or able, to give me an
answer to the question "isn't the level 3 mind accepting the meme
'There is no absolute truth'?" In all seriousness, even a "yes,"
"no," or "sometimes" would be useful here.
Lots of people have theories about how the universe
works, and are eager for me to invest time and money to learn
how to use them. Why should I pick your over any of the others?
Can you demonstrate to me--before collecting my money--that
it will be more useful than, say, spending the day walking in a
forest, carrying lunch and a bottle of water and paying close
attention to the birds?
Vicki
rosenzweig@hq.acm.org
----------
From: owner-virus
To: 'virus@lucifer.com'
Subject: RE: virus: level 3 minds
Date: Monday, October 28, 1996 3:31PM
Vicki Rosenzweig wrote:
>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.
As I have said (bracing myself for a kick in the seat from Tad), you
CAN'T use level 2 to analyze level 3. It would be like a Level-1 chimp
trying to digest a science textbook (by eating it).
>Related
>to this, on what basis does such a mind decide that a meme is
>useful? Where do its goals come from?
Please read Chapter 12 of Virus of the Mind; I discuss my perspective on
that issue in quite a bit of detail. Memetics derails quite a bit of
Western philosophy.
Richard Brodie RBrodie@brodietech.com +1.206.688.8600